Train technology prevented tragedy in Southern California, officials say - CNN
Some of the Metrolink cars in the crash were equipped with collision energy management technology -- implemented after a 2008 Chatsworth, California, crash between a freight train and a Metrolink commuter train that left 25 people dead. The train cars are relatively new, and the safety features are much better at absorbing the impact of a crash than older trains. It would have been much worse without it. ". The front end of the car that hit the truck is designed to crumple and disperse the energy of the collision, he said. The train cars are equipped with windows that emergency personnel can easily remove to evacuate passengers, he said. Lustgarten said all of the service's cab cars -- which have a compartment for an engineer -- and two-thirds of its passenger cars have the new technology. The National Transportation Safety Board will try to determine how fast the train was going when it approached the 1-ton Ford F-450 truck and its trailer. The agency said the train could have been going as fast as 79 mph during that part of its trip, and the truck was pushed about 300 feet. The driver of the train, who was in the cab car, was. Source: www.cnn.com
