Croydon tram overturns - many injured, some trapped
- Thread starter scorza
- Start date
It isn't speed, it is momentum.
If a train wreck goes bad, it can carry on going bad for quite a long time.
Carriages that fall on their side will slide along the ground. The windows will break and occupants will fall against the exposed ground and be dragged along it.
Injuries can be catastrophic. (To the extent that many injured might end up preferring to have died!)
I expect that the uncertainly about the number of fatalities is because it is, well, still uncertain!
Associate
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It isn't speed, it is momentum.
If a train wreck goes bad, it can carry on going bad for quite a long time.
Carriages that fall on their side will slide along the ground. The windows will break and occupants will fall against the exposed ground and be dragged along it.
Injuries can be catastrophic. (To the extent that many injured might end up preferring to have died!)
I expect that the uncertainly about the number of fatalities is because it is, well, still uncertain!
My friend said this happened in Slovakia in the 70s. A tram went down a steep hill and fell on its side and the windows broke. Don't want to think about what happened to the people who fell onto them and got dragged along the ground
Caporegime
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Oh dear. One of the survivors said the passenger next to him was decapitated 
Oh dear. One of the survivors said the passenger next to him was decapitated
What a damn tragedy, it boggles the mind there was no automatic breaking system in-place for trams, why does it take a serious accident to enact them? Do these people have no foresight at all?
Caporegime
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Oh ffs. What a tragedy. Hate the way this is barely getting mention because all I've seen all day is about an election that's not even in our country.
News needs to get its priorities right sometimes.
these things ought to be at least semi automated these days
I think the combination of trams sharing space with non-tram traffic, and the idea that they are designed as a lower-cost option to a light railway mean that certain things like that do get left out.
It isn't speed, it is momentum.
If a train wreck goes bad, it can carry on going bad for quite a long time.
Carriages that fall on their side will slide along the ground. The windows will break and occupants will fall against the exposed ground and be dragged along it.
Injuries can be catastrophic. (To the extent that many injured might end up preferring to have died!)
I expect that the uncertainly about the number of fatalities is because it is, well, still uncertain!
All the more reason to bring in seatbelts
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There is lots of street running so very much not as straightforward as the DLR.
They will if he is found at fault.
There was talk on the radio this morning that the driver may have fallen asleep.
I remember there was one of the subway trains in New York suffered the same accident a few years ago - driver zoned out, and the train was going too fast when it entered a bend.
Echoing the above, i'm surprised with the tech in this day and age, the trams don't have some form of auto-braking when entering defined zones (bends/hill declines etc).
The trams go through the pedestrian areas in central Croydon, you always gets idiots walking in the way and an automated system wouldn't be able to be used here.
You can see what i mean here:
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.3...=99.60375&pitch=0&thumbfov=100!7i13312!8i6656
...that doesn't mean the system couldn't have speed limits programmed into it - your scenario involves a collision detection system. The speed limits aren't in place of the driver, they just stop the driver being able to exceed the maximum speed in a given area.