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Fifth Amendment rights don't go away when you exercise your Sixth Amendment rights. Think about. Otherwise, every defendant would be forced to testify at trial if s/he retains a lawyer.
I am thinking that this is different. He's the only witness to what really happened. You're saying this person has a right to keep silence, even though he held peoples' lives in his hands?
If a student died in a teacher's classroom, wouldn't that teacher be forced to testify?
I am thinking that this is different. He's the only witness to what really happened. You're saying this person has a right to keep silence, even though he held peoples' lives in his hands?
If a student died in a teacher's classroom, wouldn't that teacher be forced to testify?
The union will protect him as long as they possibly can. Just a matter of time.
I am thinking that this is different. He's the only witness to what really happened. You're saying this person has a right to keep silence, even though he held peoples' lives in his hands?
First off, this was not a freight train. It was Amtrak. Freights are limited to 69 mph max in limited areas (and these are almost always intermodal), but that is not the point. The speed limit for Amtrak trains through this stretch is 50 (from what I've seen so far).
But the stretch prior to rhe turn was a straight which would have had a much higher speed limit. The most possible explanation here is due to improper braking, which can be due to engineer error or bad brakes on the train.
I want information regarding the engineers experience and service history of the locomotive + cars involved.
But the stretch prior to rhe turn was a straight which would have had a much higher speed limit. The most possible explanation here is due to improper braking, which can be due to engineer error or bad brakes on the train.
Too dense an area to have much over 50 mph.
I don't believe this was a braking issue, since the train was likely well exceeding the allowable speed limit to begin with. The engineer may have applied the brakes at the last moment, but it was a wee bit late based on the speed he was going. Even Amtrak's can't stop on a dime when going that fast. Granted, if he threw the train into emergency at that speed, derailment is highly possible based on the curvature of the rail at a given point.
First thing out of liberals mouths 'Republicans won't fund $1 billion for Amtrak'
If every dollar of $1 billion was spent on that 1/2 mile section of track, it would have not stopped a train from leaving the tracks doing 106 mph in a 50 mph zone.
Wrong. The technology to prevent this type of disaster exists, if the tightwads in Congress would just fund it.
He was going 106mph in a 70mph straight away and he made no attempt to slow down for the 50mph curve. He slammed on the brake at the last second. So, not only was he being reckless, he wasn't paying attention. He obviously didn't take the safety of his passengers very seriously. Sounds like a self centered individual to me. If we are taking wild guesses as to what he was doing, I pick texting.
How does a murderer (this train conductor) get to walk away without having to talk to authorities about the crash he caused? Was he under arrest that he had to invoke his 5th ammendent rights? As far as I know, no charges were filed. Why couldn't he talk about what happened? Is it because he is guilty?? Nice system we have here when you have people's lives in your hands and you can walk away from a crash without saying anything. Must be nice for pretty boy conductor who's being protected so he doesn't get in twouble.
It may have been said down thread already... The Philly DA is looking into the possibility of criminal charges.
We are NOT ignoring it here in Philly.
According to our local news, the speed along the tracks can be up to 100 mph, but the speed reduces to 50 mph at the curve. I can only surmise that he was not paying attention and when he realized that he was heading into the curve, hit the brakes and taking his speed from 106 to 102.
To not be paying attention where he was in city was beyond incompetent and COMPLETELY thoughtless.
As I mentioned, I'm in Philly. I live about 5 miles from the crash site. I'm familiar with the area.
The train was going through a populated neighborhood. It didn't look like that on TV but houses are something like a 100 yards away. There were eye witnesses because people saw it take place from their homes.
There is also a freight line that runs adjacent to the Amtrak tracks. Some of you probably saw the tanker cars sitting on some tracks on TV. Thanks God those cars were empty. I shudder to think how bad this would have been if the crash included full tanker cars.
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