george bible says that while traveling by train is safe, they should be concerned about the tracks and not speeding injunires. the rails can fracture from metal fatigue or they can move round and shift or anything else that moves. the common ones are wheels, bearings and axals. coincidently, the site of the crash in philadelphia is in the same area where the nation saw one of its deadliest train sdints history. a train traveling from washington to new york went off the tracks killing 79 people. in 1943. so awful. we ll be right back with more.
wrapped itself around a utility pole. so george are you saying that seatbelts aren t needed they re more dangerous or they re not needed? the first problem is nobody would wear them and they re not going to provide any protection against crush, which is the most devastating problem with a plane wreck. for example, when the person was texting in los angeles, they had a head on collision with a commuter train and a freight train and it was shoved 52 feet into the first passengers car. so they re now introducing crushable ends for the first time and that wouldn t have protected the passengers in that level of crush. l you can say about crushable ends is they re better. yeah.
passengers along the northeast corridor between washington and boston it has become one of the busiest, most complex technically advanced rail systems in the world. engineering professor george bible says while traveling by train is largely safe passengers should be more concerned about the state of the tracks than speeding engineers. most derailments are caused by equipment error, rail problems are a common one. rails can fracture from metal fatigue or move around and shift or anything else that moves. common ones are wheels bearings and axles. coincidentally the site of tuesday s crash in philadelphia is in the same area where the nation saw one of its deadliest train accidents in history. in 1943 a train traveling from washington to new york went off the tracks killing 79 people. suzanne malveaux cnn,
professor and also former washington post reporter don philiplips and cnn s safety analyst. george to you first, all seven cars jumped the track first, with one nearly obliterated. what will this wreckage tell us? well, the most dangerous thing in a train wreck is crushing the passengers. people often ask about seatbelts and they really wouldn t help if the car is crushed. so speed is the real issue here. the secondary effect is but believe it or not, a high speed derailment is survivable. there s an example of a train derailed in england and everyone lived except one unfortunate car
[ inaudible ] and now find ourselves caught in life s clutches. thank you very much and again, our thoughts and prayers go to you and the family of dr. griffith. we appreciate you joining us here. the engineer has been identified and the mayor blasted him. clearly he was reckless and irresponsible in his actions. i don t know what was goong with him or in the cab but there s really no excuse that could be offered. literally unless he had a heart attack. so joining me now is george bible, the author of train wreck, the forensics of rail disasters. and professor that university of north dakota and a former washington reporter. thank you for your time this