VIDEO | West Virginia Train Derailment: Train hits boulder, derails sending 3 to hospital - YouTube
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Quick! Concoct and enact legislation making falling rocks illegal!
Andre
@laming don’t joke. A lot of people think like that. Including a surprising amount of people on this forum.
Someone should DO something!!!
Jon 
Out west they use slide fences in troublesome areas, but of course you never know where a rock slide might occur. There are so many possible places that it would be impossible to cover them all. So maybe it's time to admit that any human activity has a certain amount of risk and railroading has always been one of those activities. Minimize the risk where possible but it can't be eliminated.
@Dougklink very well put. However, the majority of people lack the common sense to see things that way.
A look at weather news now, with avalanches, and deluge prompted landslides, should clue anybody, who has swerved to dodge a rock in the road, that that is a natural threat, not unique to railroads. Aircraft bird strikes...also ln recent news....gotta prevent that! They are trying.
Old time mountain RR photos show trainmen riding the pilot to spot boulders on the track. Today's camera technology, as applied to automobiles, must be in place now??...
@Steve_611 posted:@Dougklink very well put. However, the majority of people lack the common sense to see things that way.
Fair enough, but the point would be a lot stronger if so many marginal persons didn't routinely abuse the "that's just the way it is, you can't do anything about it" mantra to hide everything from simple negligence to outright criminal behavior. Also, it always seems a lot easier to be libertarian about your *own* behavior than about the behavior of people you disagree with. Just sayin' . . . .
Look, IMHO "common sense" dictates that when something bad occurs, a good faith effort should be made by the community to determine exactly what happened, and what might be done to prevent the bad thing from recurring. Sometimes, yes, that "fix" may involve telling people they really shouldn't do something stupid, but ideally that would be a last resort, and only after hearing out all affected parties. I know, often honored in the breach, but without the specter of "burdensome regulation" looming, a lot of potential "voluntary compliance" by the monied interests would go out the window.
