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Truck Strikes CN Train Causing Derailment

Posted: Fri May 31, 2019 6:47 am
by Standard Railfan
A dump truck hauling an excavator failed to stop before striking a CN train near Escanaba on Thursday May 30. The driver was airlifted to an area hospital. Several cars were derailed and the local media is reporting extensive damage to the track.
https://www.uppermichiganssource.com/co ... 7961.html

Re: Truck Strikes CN Train Causing Derailment

Posted: Fri May 31, 2019 8:26 am
by DaveO
Couldn't stop coming down the hill. CDL drivers are required to make sure their brakes are in proper working order.
At least he had the decency to avoid running into the other cars that were stopped for the train.

Re: Truck Strikes CN Train Causing Derailment

Posted: Fri May 31, 2019 4:22 pm
by trainjunkie47
Update: Truck driver released from the hospital.

Re: Truck Strikes CN Train Causing Derailment

Posted: Fri May 31, 2019 11:45 pm
by chapmaja
trainjunkie47 wrote:Update: Truck driver released from the hospital.
update: Truck driver released from hospital and job.

Seriously, unless there was some sort of equipment failure I think this driver has driven for the last time with this company. That could be by his choosing, (that crash was hell, it would have shook me up to - takeoff from Tom Gun), or the company will release him from his job because of this little mess he made.

I agree with the trooper though, this guy's driving may have saved some lives because he didn't hit the cars. That makes me think there may have been some sort of mechanical failure involved. Looking at the hill it is a decent hill, but one that a truck with properly working brakes should stop on.

Re: Truck Strikes CN Train Causing Derailment

Posted: Sat Jun 01, 2019 4:29 pm
by Raildudes dad
https://www.dailypress.net/news/local-n ... r-weekend/

Lucky guy, what's left of the truck and the empty trailer under an empty gon.

Re: Truck Strikes CN Train Causing Derailment

Posted: Sat Jun 01, 2019 4:50 pm
by kd_1014
Raildudes dad wrote:https://www.dailypress.net/news/local-n ... r-weekend/

Lucky guy, what's left of the truck and the empty trailer under an empty gon.
Holy smokes, I thought it may have been just one or two wheelsets on the ground but not basically the entire train! Wonder how fast that truck was going to create that big of a crash. Maybe the train was going a bit speedy as well.

Re: Truck Strikes CN Train Causing Derailment

Posted: Sat Jun 01, 2019 6:38 pm
by Saturnalia
The brakes failed. Driver is out of hospital, sustained only minor injuries.

Re: Truck Strikes CN Train Causing Derailment

Posted: Sun Jun 02, 2019 8:56 pm
by redcrumbox
Saturnalia wrote:The brakes failed. Driver is out of hospital, sustained only minor injuries.
The driver must have jumped at the last second because this is the roof of the truck cab. You can see the the microphone for the cb radio.

Re: Truck Strikes CN Train Causing Derailment

Posted: Sun Jun 02, 2019 9:08 pm
by chapmaja
redcrumbox wrote:
Saturnalia wrote:The brakes failed. Driver is out of hospital, sustained only minor injuries.
The driver must have jumped at the last second because this is the roof of the truck cab. You can see the the microphone for the cb radio.
I think you are right. I wonder if they will ever find out why the brakes failed. Glad nobody was seriously injured or worse. This could have turned out way worse than it did.

Re: Truck Strikes CN Train Causing Derailment

Posted: Sun Jun 02, 2019 9:14 pm
by redcrumbox
chapmaja wrote:
redcrumbox wrote:
Saturnalia wrote:The brakes failed. Driver is out of hospital, sustained only minor injuries.
The driver must have jumped at the last second because this is the roof of the truck cab. You can see the the microphone for the cb radio.
I think you are right. I wonder if they will ever find out why the brakes failed. Glad nobody was seriously injured or worse. This could have turned out way worse than it did.
It's possible the trailer brakes were not working. Most trucks made after the late 90's have self adjusting brakes. No need to crawl under them and adjust the brakes anymore.

Re: Truck Strikes CN Train Causing Derailment

Posted: Mon Jun 03, 2019 7:36 pm
by Raildudes dad
I haven't seen any photos of the excavator. Trailer overloaded? Empty dump truck, tail wagging the dog perhaps?

Re: Truck Strikes CN Train Causing Derailment

Posted: Mon Jun 03, 2019 8:21 pm
by EWRice
I believe auto slacks were mandatory after '93 model year. About 50% of construction related trucks I see have poorly working, or non operable auto slacks. This is the number two issue I find on inspections. Have to grease them almost weekly in dirty environments or they fail. Trailers usually freeze up and fail to adjust because of sitting. Could be many reasons this happened.

By what little I can see in the picture it looks like the truck was a W or T series Kenworth with a Cat 3406. Pretty tough truck to be chewed up like that. Driver is darn lucky.

Re: Truck Strikes CN Train Causing Derailment

Posted: Tue Jun 04, 2019 12:26 pm
by Raildudes dad
Nice ID of the motor 8) 8)