Sunday, July 19, 2009

See, this is why I'll never buy a GM vehicle...

It used to be that it was strictly Communist nations who had repeated instances of high-causalty accidents involving public transportation. Seems like this nation has joined those ranks as well. Yesterday's accident on San Francisco's "Muni" (that city's light rail system) is only the most recent:

The crash happened at around 3 p.m. Dozens of passengers were triaged nearby in the southwest part of the city. At least 47 people were taken to three different area hospitals, three in serious condition

Officials say a westbound L-train crashed into a K train that was standing still at the platform. The front of the L train is crushed. Passengers in both trains were hurt.

Let's go back to late June, and the fatal "Metro" crash in Washington DC. Apparently, they still haven't even fixed the problem that caused the "accident" in the first place;

Federal investigators say the signaling system for Metro transit trains continues to fail periodically in the area of Washington, D.C., where a deadly train crash occurred.

But the system had been failing intermittently in the days before and after the June 22 crash, which killed nine people...

(See link below for what may have caused - and is still causing - these fatal signal issues. Hint: Stupidity only the government is capable of)

Don't forget about Los Angeles, September of 2008:

The 2008 Chatsworth train collision occurred at 4:22 on Friday September 12, 2008, when a Union Pacific freight train and a Metrolink commuter train collided head-on in the Chatsworth district of Los Angeles...

Before the collision, the Metrolink train may have run through a red signal before entering a section of single track where the opposing freight train had been given the right of way by the train dispatcher.

This mass casualty event brought a massive emergency response by both the city and county of Los Angeles, but the nature and extent of physical trauma taxed the available resources. With 25 deaths, this became the deadliest accident in Metrolink's history.

There's more of these out there, many just involving one or two fatalities, or perhaps just the operator. Then of course, there's this horror, if commuter ferries are your transport of choice...

What's similar about all of these fatal accidents?

-these transportation systems are at least partially (if not totally) funded by the federal government
-they are controlled by local/state government (if not both)
-they are operated by unionized employees

Remember, this is the model going forward for Obama's America. Control and purse strings held by the government, operation handled by unionized workers, all paid for by taxes and fees from the private sector, who will be unable to hold the former two responsible for any future casualties like the ones listed above.

Any how safe and secure to you think the new vehicles coming off the unionized assembly lines at Government Motors will be, anyway? And how likely do you think it is that design and engineering faults will be covered up rather than exposed and recalled as they are in private sector companies? (see here - was the Metro DC rail crash caused by bogus enviornmentalism?) After all, no one shirks blame better than politicians and union bosses...

Me? I'm leaning towards doing a lot more walking...

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