ClassicRadio99 sent us this letter about what happens when a Railroader goes too far into the world of whack:
I thought you’d find these two articles from the Chicago Sun Times and the Chicago Tribune to be of great interest.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-051011metra,0,67682.story?coll=chi-news-hed
http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-metra11.html
Recently, there was a tragic commuter train crash where a train went through a 10 mph zone at 70 mph and derailed with the loss of life of two passengers.
So, the engineer who was supposed to be driving the train that day, a chap named Mike Smith, decides to ignore the time-proven advice for a situation like this: “Shut Up and Lay Low!”
This moron decides to give interviews to the two largest daily newspapers in Chicago, with worldwide readership, to “tell his side of the story”.
Anyway, here’s where it goes to the tragically whacker.. It seems this guy is a licensed ham, and a scanner buff: At his previous job as a rail engineer, a conductor demanded that Smith be replaced or the conductor wanted to be removed from the train because Smith was working his ham radio while he was supposed to be running the freight train. (Yes, it’s against railroad rules to have radios, cellphones, scanners, or any
other personal communication stuff at the locomotive driver’s seat)
Some of the other gems from this guy would be precious if they weren’t so sad..
– He stated that he had green lights going into the rail switch allowing him to go 70 mph, even though seven separate signals would all have to malfunction at the same time to give him the green lights he claimed he saw. His comeback: “I’m saying one thing, technology is saying another. It gets to a point of who are you going to believe? Are you going to believe me? Or are you going to believe the technology?” (From the Sun-Times article)
Immediately after the crash, NTSB found all signals and switches working correctly.
– His co-workers at the freight line called him “Batman” because of all the devices this guy had on his belt.
– Sitting in Nick and Tony’s restaurant downtown, a radio holstered in his belt and an Operation Lifesaver railroad signal pin fastened to the lapel of his leather jacket……. (Tribune) (If memory serves me, Nick and Tony’s is a fairly expensive Chicago eatery..)
When you read the articles, you too will get that pathologically creepy feeling about a guy who wants his 15 minutes of fame no matter what. Didn’t Scott Peterson play the same media games?
This whole situation is just way too disturbing on many levels… Maybe you guys can figure it all out, I sure can’t..
Yea the signal thing is total Bull. He would have had paper work on the speed restriction. And should have known about it. If he would get his head out of his ass and pay attention to his job he would have not killed those people. There is enough radio chatter at work. I dont see how he has time to chat it up on the ham radio. I sure as hell dont. – Will