Vermont — The news reported on a major accident this week about 10 miles south of Montpelier, Vermont when an Amtrak train derailed from the tracks. This happened on Monday morning, October 5, 2015 and it looks like 4 people on the Amtrak train were injured, including the train’s conductor.
Right now, not much information about the accident is know.
The Amtrak train was five cars long and was headed along the tracks about 10 miles south of Montpelier when it may have hit some rocks on the track.
The train cars all derailed and crashed down an embankment, leaving at least four people injured. The train’s conductor and three others were all transported to a hospital, but it’s not clear what condition they’re in.
Recall that this is Amtrak’s second major derailment in 2015, the last one happening in May that killed 7 people and injured 50 more.
Map of the Approximate Area
Commentary:
Speed is usually an issue when trains derail and crash, but it appears that this was caused by rocks on the track. In legal terms, we call things like that “Acts of God,” which is a way of saying that a naturally-occuring event caused the accident and couldn’t have been foreseen or prevented.
However, I don’t really know if that’s the case here. Surely part of the railroad’s responsibility to their passengers and employees is to make sure their tracks are clear of debris and rocks. While they can’t be everywhere at once, it would be helpful to know if they have a plan for this kind of thing and whether they make it regular practice to check their railroads for the safety of their trains. A few of the news reports have mentioned putting up special “rock fences” to keep sliding rocks and rubble from landing on the tracks, which seems like an excellent idea.
Amtrak has come out and said they don’t know whether that would’ve helped prevent the accident, but it’s not unusual for companies to be a bit elusive when trying to figure out what happened in such a major accident. I wouldn’t be surprised if we find out later that they had cause and opportunity to put the fences up at some past date, but failed to do so.
— Grossman Law Offices
