Secret Squirrel Examines The Spanish Train Derail.

Secret Squirrel has turned his attention to the Spanish rail disaster, the Spanish derail, the worst train disaster in Spain's history.Well,the
most common reasons for a derailment are problems with the track or rail and equipment,then left are vehicle train collisions, and,of course,
sabotage. what do we see and know? To commence with we know that the Spain Train Crash Driver, Francisco Jose Garzon Amo, Ignored 3 Signals To Slow Down,from there it just gets worse.

Here at view an excerpt of a news article with respect to the Spanish derailment..

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/02/spain-train-driver-ignored-signals_n_3696053.html

"MADRID -- The driver of a Spanish train that derailed, killing 79 people, ignored three warnings to reduce speed in the two minutes before the
train hurtled off the tracks on a treacherous curve, crash investigators said Friday.

A court statement said the driver was talking on the phone to a colleague when he received the first automatic warning in his cabin of a sharply reduced speed zone ahead. The statement said the warning was by means of an audible sound but provided no further detail.

Police forensic tests on the train's black box data recorders showed the last warning came just 250 meters (yards) before a dangerous curve where the accident occurred last week in Santiago de Compostela, Spain.

At that point, the train was going 121 mph (195 kph) when the speed limit was set at 50 mph (80 kph). Four seconds later the driver applied
emergency brakes.

By the time Francisco Jose Garzon Amo applied the brakes, the train was already beginning to lose contact with the rails, the statement said. The total derailment occurred at 111 mph (179 kph)."

Garzon has admitted in court that he was traveling too fast but could not explain to an investigating judge why he didn't slow down earlier.

Spain train crash: Video shows moment of deadly derailment.Video footage from a security camera showed the train, with 247 people on board, hurtling into a concrete wall at the side of the track as carriages jack-knifed and the engine overturned.

Here one can see the derailment as it occurs, via a video on the following site link...

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-07-25/video-shows-moment-of-deadly-train-derailment-in-spain/4844594

The eight-carriage train came off the tracks, hit a wall and caught fire just outside the pilgrimage destination Santiago de Compostela in
northwestern Spain on Wednesday night. It was one of Europe's worst rail disasters.Around 94 people were injured, 35 of them, including four
children, in a serious condition, the deputy head of the regional government said.Seventy-nine people died in the derailment.Newspaper accounts cited witnesses as saying the driver, Francisco Jose Garzon, who had helped rescue victims, shouted into a phone: "I've derailed! What do I do?".

The 52-year-old had been a train driver for 30 years, said a spokeswoman for Renfe, the state train company.The disaster stirred memories of a train bombing in Madrid in 2004, carried out by Islamist militants, that killed 191 people, although officials do not suspect an attack this time.
There were 218 train accidents in Spain between 2008-2011, well below the EU average of 426 for the same period.

Indeed the nature of the event is utterly and completely horrific,and some have stated, and it is so, preventable, it need not have happened at all. Indeed the cause was, most definately and entirely due to,shall we say,human error. However there is much to learn from this disaster,much
improvement can be and should be made. Let us examine the rail event from all possible angles.

Firstly,let us take a positive viewpoint revealed by the event.Take the time to visit each link to view the photos,and videos as they will
certainly serve to enlighten you.

The image below shows the derail site from above, note the remarkably intact rails.
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2013/07/26/article-2378756-1AFCF536000005DC-898_634x509.jpg

Here we see the aftermath,basically cleaned up, engine set still at the scene, but again note the remarkably intact condition of the rails.
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2013/07/26/article-2378756-1B01E529000005DC-599_634x458.jpg

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2013/07/25/article-2377113-1AFE1DD6000005DC-786_634x418.jpg

Quite clearly we see that the Spanish system of rails themselves, are remarkably,and noteably, strong,solid,showing massive strength.Indeed they are a system of tracks to be the envy of many nation's rail systems.

Now we'll take a negative view of the event,in the hopes of further improving things.

So how did the derail itself occur? Well, we note the first car to loose the rails, was not the engine itself,nor was it the rail carriages themselves, rather it was the train set support car attached to the engine.We note that left the rails and was,in fact, the actual cause of the derail, but yes due to the excessive speed. The car is quite obviously,top heavy,the center of gravity of the car is such that the momentum,inertia,supplied by the excessive speed, caused the car to shift off the rails,and then take everything with it.Here, one improvement would be to perhaps add some weight to the car below it's main chassis,in an effort to correct this happening again, to,bring that support car more in to balance.But there's more to come,the net result of the derail,what occured, and why.


Now let's look at the condition of the rail cars...

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2013/07/26/article-2378756-1AFEAF36000005DC-186_634x423.jpg

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2013/07/26/article-2378756-1AFD8605000005DC-526_634x505.jpg

http://vipmedia.globalnews.ca/2013/07/spain-train-disaster_5.jpg?w=670&h=473&crop=1

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/image/756240/1374754556000/large16x9/768/432/spain-train-crash.jpg

http://dm62zza9c93u.cloudfront.net/styles/overlay_image_1280_or_1024/s3/000_ARP3598655.jpg?itok=iiiWI5Yb

http://darkroom.baltimoresun.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/REU-SPAIN-TRAIN-7-760x496.jpg

http://bdnpull.bangorpublishing.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/10005301_H10916407-600x399.jpg

http://www.washingtonpost.com/rf/image_606w/2010-2019/Wires/Online/2013-07-26/AP/Images/Spain%20Train%20%20Derailment.JPEG-0f7e3.jpg

We note frail,weak construction.We note, utterly gutted interiors, we note there are no seats in the interiors.no seats. Yes, the seats all came
dislodged from their mountings, and crashed about the carriages, with the passengers,in to the passengers,causing most definatly the massive
casualties and deaths involved. Seats that came loose, off the mountings.Who bult the train carriages? Indeed the condition of the seats, as in not being in their mountings, does most clearly indicate frail,weak construction and general lack of any kind of solidity, and a lack of train carriage,design,engineering,construction and quite clearly the use of weak inadequate materials in the construction of any kind, and indeed high speed, train carriages.

Could the derail have been prevented? Most certainly, there were warnings of excessive speed, clearly the driver who was well aware of the route,did not function properly, was travelling at excessive speed,quite clearly yes. Could things be improved further? Indeed yes, progression to the installation of automatic braking system for the rail system, also it would not hurt to also have huge speed signs similar to those found on highways.But it will not prevent a future derail on the lines due to other causes, and also when and should these derails occur in future the casualties will be equally and possibly greater yet even, due to the improper rail carriage construction techniques prevalent and practised in the Spanish rail system of today.There, in Spain, with the weak and improperly constructed train carriages, there are massive train rail derail,and collision, casualties waiting,waiting,waiting, to once again occur.