What would happen in a train crash?
July 7, 2005 3:30 PM   Subscribe

I'm doing some research for work and need to find out some general information about commuter train crashes. My Google skills seem to be lacking here. Care to help?

Essentially, the scenario is: A commuter train crashes into a car on the tracks. It is dark, so the car would not be seen until it nearly hits. My questions are: 1. About how fast would the train be going given the relatively short distance during which the brakes are applied? 2. What would happen to the train and the car? 3. What level of injuries would the passengers sustain (the train will be pretty full)? 4. Would the conductor survive or be badly injured? This is not morbid curiosity, but rather for a story being written by the boss. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
posted by unsweet to Travel & Transportation (5 answers total)
 
Print out this report for your boss. It is the NTSB report from the 1999 Bourbonnais, Illinois Amtrak derailment. Train hit a truck parked on the tracks -- train derailed and 11 died. Bad stuff. I worked on some of the lawsuits.

Likely other reports at the NTSB site that you could use for other examples.
posted by Mid at 3:53 PM on July 7, 2005


The most important factor is whether or not the train derails, which is determined by the weight of the front cars. If there is a heavy locomotive at the front of the train, it will mash the car to pieces and is very unlikely to derail, even going at speed. If the locomotive is at the back, or if it's electric and there isn't an actual locomotive, the chances of a derailment are much higher, though it's still likely to completely destroy the car. The thing to remember here is that trains are incredibly heavy and solidly built, especially compared to ordinary cars.

In the case of a derailment, injuries/damage depend entirely on the carriage, since it's likely that the front carriages could be badly damaged while the rear carriages remain upright on the track.

(I know this from reading my dad's rail magazines, it's not idle speculation)
posted by cillit bang at 4:43 PM on July 7, 2005


Train = roughly 400,000 lbs. (locomotive) and upwards of 100,000 lbs. per passenger car. Car=2500 lbs or so. F=MA, remember your high school physics?

Details aside, I was engineer on a train that struck a van one awful night about 25 years ago- from my point of view as a passenger (which is all I was once I had closed the throttle and applied the emergency brakes) the collision had about as much impact as running over an empty beer can with your car- and sounded a bit like it as well.
posted by pjern at 7:36 PM on July 7, 2005


Best answer: Dangit- hit post too soon without properly answering your questions...

1. About how fast would the train be going given the relatively short distance during which the brakes are applied?

Basically, in the scenario you give, it would hit the car at pretty much full speed (which could be up to 89 MPH in some places). Train brakes take a bit of time to apply with any force, if there were very little reaction time, as you imply, they might not even have started to apply before impact.

2. What would happen to the train and the car?

There might be a scratch or two on the paint on the front of the locomotive. The car will likely be unrecognizable steel confetti.

3. What level of injuries would the passengers sustain (the train will be pretty full)?

The passengers will likely not notice anything but the heavy deceleration once the brakes bite.

4. Would the conductor survive or be badly injured?

I'll expand conductor to include the train crew as a whole. The crew will almost certainly survive, they're protected by literally thousands of tons of mass and in the case of engine crew, being eight feet or so above the site of the action. Nevertheless the psychic injuries to the crew are horrible- it took me almost 20 years to stop having nightmares about it.
posted by pjern at 7:49 PM on July 7, 2005


Response by poster: Thanks for your answer solopsist. That sounds like an awful experience for you. I can't imagine.

Thanks for the report Mid.

I will pass this stuff on to my boss!
posted by unsweet at 11:24 AM on July 8, 2005


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