Original Post
From the link: "The U.S. averages about three train derailments per day, according to federal data, but relatively few create disasters."
The quoted text from the link is news to many, but it's just one of the downsides of large equipment steered by flanged wheels on steel rails. The total number of derailments is inflated by the FRA reporting requirements, which result in the reporting of many derailments that -- while they should never have happened -- do not occur at high speed, or on main tracks, and do not result in any equipment turning over or going into the ditch. They may not be noteworthy, but they put numbers into the public statistics.
During 9 years in the 1980's and early 1990's, when I was an official on the Santa Fe Needles District, 170 miles of desert double track with lots of train traffic, we had three -- yes, just three -- major derailments, none of which caused injury or death. One was from a burned off roller bearing journal, and the other was caused by a work train mistakenly dumping a carload of large rocks (rip-rap) into the side of a passing train. The third was on a 49 MPH branch line without block signals, on a moonless night, and was the result of a flash flood washing away a small wooden bridge.
So be careful how you interpret the raw statistics you read.
