<s docid="FBIS4-68446" num="74"> The reason -- unsatisfactory routine maintenance of the track, failure to adhere to the regular intervals for its inspection, delay in replacing critically defective rails, violation of the rules for doing the work, unsatisfactory maintenance of the switch assemblies and curved crossings, and poor quality of the track repair.</s>

<s docid="FBIS4-68446" num="76"> On 11 railroads, and particularly -- the Moscow, Volga and North Caucasus -- the track workers were to blame for wrecks and accidents.</s>

<s docid="FBIS4-68446" num="80"> It should be noted that the motor vehicle drivers are to blame for the overwhelming majority of collisions.</s>

<s docid="FBIS4-68446" num="91"> The data listed show that 90 percent of the accidents and wrecks occur in two services -- track and railcar.</s>

<s docid="FBIS4-68446" num="102"> As a result, in 11 months of 1993, the network had 13 wrecks, 6 accidents and 23 derailments involving cars with hazardous freight.</s>

<s docid="FBIS4-68446" num="105"> They were caused mainly by leakage through faulty drain instruments, cracks, corroded openings and the welds of boilers.</s>

<s docid="FBIS4-68446" num="115"> This means that undisciplined or poorly trained workers, the proportion of which does not exceed 3 percent of the operations personnel, threaten train traffic safety.</s>

<s docid="LA060789-0060" num="124"> But evidence collected so far shows the train weighed nearly 3,000 tons more than its crew was told, a factor that could be key because engineers base their speed and braking calculations on weight.</s>

<s docid="LA060789-0060" num="126"> In addition, tests show that because only three of his six locomotives had working dynamic brakes, Holland had just half the braking power needed to control the train at 30 m.p.h.</s>

<s docid="LA102790-0086" num="26"> Transit officials have said that some motorists try to slip through closed rail crossings on the assumption that they are maneuvering past slow freight trains.</s>

<s docid="LA102790-0086" num="29"> Only 12 hours later, four Cambodian immigrants were hurt when their car collided with a trolley on Burnett Street.</s>

<s docid="LA121490-0002" num="18"> She described to the class how 47-year-old Usha Waney of La Jolla had slipped and fallen on the tracks as she ran to catch a train.</s>

<s docid="LA092790-0192" num="15"> Railroad officials suspect vandals because the switch -- a device on the track that allows trains to change tracks -- had been tampered with, Currier said.</s>

<s docid="LA092790-0192" num="75"> Authorities blamed vandalism for the derailment of a train loaded with ammunition from the U.S.</s>

<s docid="LA091190-0090" num="9"> Southern Pacific spokesman Andy Anderson said a switch in the City of Industry yard was "mistakenly" left open, allowing the string of freight cars to wander onto a Union Pacific line and into the path of the locomotives.</s>

<s docid="LA091190-0090" num="22"> "The cars probably broke free after they were improperly connected to a locomotive in the Industry train yard," said administration spokesman Steve Borows.</s>

<s docid="LA051389-0023" num="40"> Some officials said the train's brakes apparently failed, but others said an examination of the wheels showed that the brakes had been applied for at least part of the long ride down.</s>

<s docid="LA062090-0061" num="22"> Both Kolstadt and Coughlin based their arguments on evidence cited by William Pugh, the chief investigator and head of the NTSB's railroad division, who told the board that the train's crew could have stopped the train before proceeding down the 23-mile grade leading to the crash site.</s>

<s docid="LA062090-0061" num="24"> In addition, the train's crew was unaware that only three of its six locomotives had functioning brakes.</s>

<s docid="LA062090-0061" num="26"> Instead of noting the correct weight of 9,000 tons, the clerk estimated that the train's 69 hopper cars full of trona -- a sand-like, sodium bicarbonate material -- weighed 6,150 tons.</s>

<s docid="LA062090-0061" num="29"> From the beginning, the safety board has focused its investigation on the weight of the train, which exceeded speeds of 105 m.p.h. before it rushed around a curve, left the tracks and slammed into a row of houses at the foot of the treacherous Cajon Pass.</s>

<s docid="LA062090-0061" num="30"> Southern Pacific's operating rules "provided inadequate guidance" to Holland regarding the allowable speed and braking requirements, said Pugh.</s>

<s docid="LA062090-0061" num="33"> "They were totally misinformed about something that was fundamental to the operation of the train," Lauber said.</s>

<s docid="LA051389-0046" num="17"> Human factors and track defects, such as warps or cracks, were far more often found to be the cause of accidents than mechanical and electrical failures, according to a spokeswoman for the Railroad Administration.</s>

<s docid="LA051389-0046" num="20"> Of these, 8,914 were found to be caused by track defects, 7,183 were caused by human factors, 4,029 by mechanical and electrical failures and 3,955 by miscellaneous factors.</s>

<s docid="LA120690-0182" num="11"> Usha Waney, 47, of La Jolla fell as she rushed to cross the tracks after hearing a warning signal at a nearby road crossing and mistakenly thought it marked the arrival of her Los Angeles-bound passenger train.</s>

<s docid="LA120690-0182" num="45"> On Oct. 5, a Carlsbad grocery clerk was killed by an Amtrak train as he carried a bicycle along a trestle near Basilone Road in the North County.</s>

<s docid="LA120690-0182" num="46"> On Oct. 13, a woman was struck in Encinitas by another passenger train as she sat on the tracks smoking a cigarette.</s>

<s docid="LA120690-0182" num="70"> The danger at the tiny depot, which overlooks the ocean in downtown Del Mar, lies instead at an unsanctioned track crossing used by scores of passengers each day to reach the station from a private parking lot nearby, Martin said.</s>

<s docid="LA120690-0182" num="101"> The Del Mar station was the site of an accident in the mid-1970s when a train struck a bus that had stalled on the tracks in the fog.</s>

<s docid="LA122189-0126" num="24"> "Evidently, the vehicle ignored the lights and went right in front of the train," Lloyd said.</s>

<s docid="LA020389-0043" num="25"> "When the exchange of locomotives was complete, the crew returned to pick up the freight cars only to find they were gone," it said, adding that the cars had rolled 12 miles east to Helena.</s>

<s docid="LA100590-0074" num="26"> Michael E.</s>

<s docid="LA100590-0074" num="27"> Tune of Summersville, Mo., was cited for driving on a route posted for no-truck traffic along Leucadia Boulevard between Interstate 5 and Highway 101, blocking a railway crossing and stopping at a railway crossing, said sheriff's Lt. Kathy Fulmer.</s>

<s docid="LA101090-0010" num="10"> Investigators determined that the derailment occurred when a section of track bent under the weight of a passing freight car, said Ed Damrom of the Public Utilities Commission's Railroad Operations and Safety Section.</s>

<s docid="LA101090-0010" num="12"> He said the most plausible theory was that the wheels, or "trucks," of one boxcar may have been defective and caused the boxcar's load to shift while the car negotiated a curve.</s>

<s docid="LA101090-0010" num="28"> Investigators determined Tuesday that the derailment occurred after a rail bent and "flipped over" under the weight of a boxcar carrying two metal containers, one stacked on top of the other.</s>

<s docid="LA051789-0127" num="30"> Although questions about what caused the train to race out of control remain unanswered, early evidence suggests that confusion about the weight of the train's cargo of sal soda and braking problems likely played a role.</s>

<s docid="FBIS3-32795" num="31"> [Director] "It looks like the bridge has been affected, and an investigation must be conducted to see if some element in the bridge failed, or whether there was another, as yet unknown cause.</s>

<s docid="LA082989-0016" num="24"> From the start, the search for a cause has spotlighted the inaccurate weight of the carloads of trona that was provided to crew members before they left Mojave.</s>

<s docid="FT923-5087" num="6"> DRIVER ERROR was to blame for the Cannon Street rail cash which killed two people and injured more than 500, according to the official report published yesterday.</s>

<s docid="FT923-5087" num="9"> Tests three days after the accident showed Mr Graham to have small traces of cannabis in his blood, but the HSE's report said no firm conclusions could be reached as to whether 'use of cannabis' was the cause of the braking error.</s>

<s docid="LA110490-0174" num="9"> April 5: Juan Carlos Martinez, 18, had to have his legs amputated after he slipped on the tracks and fell under a train traveling along a sharp curve behind the Capistrano Beach business district.</s>

<s docid="LA110490-0174" num="12"> Larry Charles Peterson, 43, of Buena Park was struck and killed by a Santa Fe Railroadfreight train in the 1800 block of West Commonwealth Avenue in Fullerton after he refused to heed a train conductor's warning to get off the tracks where he had been seated.</s>

<s docid="LA110490-0174" num="15"> Railroad officials suspect vandalism.</s>

<s docid="LA110490-0174" num="18"> Santa Fe Railroad worker Joe Otero pulled Lorraine Ruiz, 26, of Buena Park and five children from a car stranded on a railroad crossing seconds before a passenger train struck it.</s>

<s docid="LA110490-0174" num="22"> Their car had been thrust into the railroad crossing after being rear-ended by another vehicle.</s>

<s docid="LA110490-0174" num="27"> April 27: Jose Gonzalez de Anda Jr., 48, was rushing across the tracks in the 1700 block of East Orangethorpe Avenue in Placentia when he was hit by a Santa Fe freight train.</s>

<s docid="LA110490-0174" num="32"> Palma had driven past six stopped cars and around the lowered crossing gates.</s>

<s docid="LA110490-0174" num="34"> Guadalupe Magadalena, 21, suffered minor injuries when she was struck by a northbound train as she was walking along on the pedestrian passage way near the tracks approaching the Fullerton Amtrak station.</s>

<s docid="LA110490-0174" num="38"> The car had been stuck on the tracks during heavy morning commuter traffic.</s>

<s docid="LA110490-0174" num="41"> James Boyle, 10, of Orange was killed as he and three other boys, two of whom were his brothers, tried to outrun a southbound Amtrak train on a railroad trestle in Santa Ana near Santiago Park.</s>

<s docid="LA110490-0174" num="43"> Bryan George Tully, a 31-year-old transient, was killed when a southbound Amtrak train hit him as he walked on tracks on Oso Road near Camino Capistrano in San Juan Capistrano.</s>

<s docid="LA110490-0174" num="45"> Transient Harley Edward Duggan, 50, had been lying on the tracks at Las Vegas Avenue east of San Juan Creek and north of Coast Highway at Capistrano Beach when he was struck by a northbound Santa Fe locomotive traveling between 40 and 50 m.p.h.</s>

<s docid="LA110490-0174" num="48"> Jose Guerrero, 21, of Santa Ana had his legs severed when he tried to jump off a freight train near 1400 S.</s>

<s docid="LA110490-0174" num="53"> Determined a suicide by the coroner's office.</s>

<s docid="LA110490-0174" num="55"> Transient Ruben S. Martinez, 31, had apparently been asleep on railroad tracks at 500 S.</s>

<s docid="LA110490-0174" num="56"> Grand Ave. in Santa Ana when he was struck and killed by an Amtrak passenger train.</s>

<s docid="FBIS4-46981" num="35"> The cause of the derailment is simplicity itself: the inquiry found that after the switch was replaced, nobody weeded out the bad switch ties, and large sags were left in the track, resulting in widening of the gauge.</s>

<s docid="FBIS4-46981" num="48"> The rail support segment of the switch curve at switch No 25 had been spiked without installing standard reinforcement plates, and the bad switch ties had not been completely weeded out (that lesson sure didn't take).</s>

<s docid="LA101889-0118" num="24"> "She had already started through (and) the front of her car was underneath the bar.</s>

<s docid="LA030589-0194" num="13"> Saturday's accident, which occurred within 10 miles of the December crash, apparently occurred when a slower-moving northbound train switched tracks in front of a faster train coming up behind it near the suburban Purley station.</s>

<s docid="LA030589-0194" num="28"> British Rail has acknowledged that December's crash near the Clapham Junction was caused by faulty signaling work there on the weekend prior to the accident.</s>

<s docid="LA030589-0194" num="37"> Five people were killed and 80 injured when a slow-moving northbound train apparently switched tracks in front of a faster train near the suburban Purley station in London.</s>

<s docid="FT941-7105" num="18"> He concludes it was caused either by 'an unaccountable error' on the part of the Sprinter driver, or by the signalling and telecommunications technicians in the tunnel junction relay room.</s>

<s docid="LA092690-0149" num="9"> A vandal who flipped a switch on a train track apparently caused two locomotives and two boxcars carrying thousands of rounds of artillery shells to derail Tuesday night in Westminster, railroad officials said this morning.</s>

<s docid="FT941-7101" num="14"> He says the accident was caused either by 'an unaccountable error' by the Sprinter driver, or by the signalling and telecommunications technicians in the tunnel junction relay room.</s>

