Horrifying Runaway Train: San Bernardino Train Disaster SP 7551 East | Mayday | Wonder
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- čas přidán 21. 07. 2021
- On 12 May 1989, a 69-car freight train goes out of control while descending from California's Cajon Pass. It derails in a residential neighbourhood of San Bernardino after reaching speeds in excess of 100 miles per hour (160 km/h). Two residents and two train crew members are killed in the initial crash. More than a week later, an underground gasoline pipeline, damaged by earth-moving equipment during the post-crash clean-up, ruptures and sparks a fire that kills another two people.
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They mentioned many of the things that went wrong that were preventable. Yet they didn't mention the most obvious one: building houses next to a curved section of elevated tracks at the bottom of a hill.
That's like building your house at the end of a runway.
@@jamesstreet856In Minneapolis, a Marine panther (fighter) jet crashed into a housing development of modest homes the 1950s. But the neighborhood (located a quarter mile to the right of one runway) is still there. You can tell which houses were destroyed by fire because they were rebuilt as duplexes. Yet people don't want to leave their homes.
@@Gail1Marie Well, I can understand that but, lol, there is no way I'm living at the end of a runway where dozens (or more) of planes are on a collision course with my house every day and I have to hope and pray that every one of them makes it off the ground lest they end up going into one side of my house and out the other. Not happening. I understand there are memories in a house but living at the end of a runway means you've got a good chance of BECOMING a memory yourself. Thanks for the reply. Stay well.
On the outside of said curve at that, right at the bottom of one the most treacherous grades in American railroading
Cheap land cost most likely.
Holland is a legend even after getting in a train crash getting punctured lung broken ribs he still works with trains, just amazing
He retired a few years back. He was a part of my service unit though he traveled north out of Bakersfield and reportedly never touched mountain terrain again.
@@timgirard6099 that’s what I hear
@@timgirard6099 how’s he been?
Haven’t found anything on him besides this
Once a railroadman, always a railroadman.
Railroader for life. Drive slow, make more dough - Tommy Two Notch.
I've worked as a student conductor in 2017 on this same train, out of Mojave Yard. The same engineer that ran this train was one of the individuals who helped train me to be a conductor right before his retirement.
Wait Frank Holland is now retired???
@@jasonpeisley6031 I believe he retired in 2018.
@@jasonpeisley6031 Makes sense; 1989 was more than 30 years ago to now.
Oh that's really cool :) I thought the train itself was a total loss?
@@RedRoseSeptember22 he means the train number is the same, not the actual physical train
Absolutely insane that a huge freight train can call the dispatcher and just…have the dispatcher not instantly answer the call. There are obviously a million things that went wrong in this situation, but that feels like something pretty majorly wrong with the train system as a whole
Absolutely. An earlier call to the emergency services that there was a runaway train on the track (rather than the obscure message; "we're on the road" ) could have seen the houses in danger evacuated in time.
Typical SP.
That’s a train dispatcher for you. The normal on the railroad
@@AmtrakFanatic well that’s terrifying
@@kalindastrome2182 They physically can't monitor multiple channels at a time. The dispatcher is usually in charge of a single subdivision. That subdivision is broken up to multiple channels, each one covering a small part of the subdivision. When a train needs to talk to the dispatcher, they "tone up" the dispatcher with their radio, and the dispatcher will see on his screen that someone wants to talk to him on that channel. There's a good chance the dispatcher here was busy conversing with another train and had no way to know that the train was in an emergency.
This train was going at least 100 mph when it derailed. For a freight train going at this speed is insane. That must've been terrifying for the men on board.
More than 100 mph. 176 km/h would be about 110 mph
Freight train max speed is 70 mph or 112 km/h but its depend on the landscape and the weight you haul too.
109
It's not that frightening you live or you don't it's part of life
@@sontungle2641 More depends on tracks ratings
"OMG I'm fired"... The management culture of the railroad industry summed up in one short sentence.
not exactly. his reaction was from a man with a family to provide for. and he had no idea how it would end, and couldn't do much about it anyway
@@Mike1614b have you worked for a class 1?
@@amamdawhatever exactly,
Locomotive air brakes are really confusing and even more confusing when they aren’t working properly.. as a tech, I have been there. He was confused and trying to figure out what he forgot to cut in or set up wrong. I would be thinking the exact same thing.
But yeah, RR loves getting rid of people. At my facility we had detention for bad boys just like school. Seriously.. we even had a bad boys councilor.. lol .
8:21 that daughter is a whole man!
I’ve only ever gone 20mph downhill in my little switch yard. I was riding the back of the cars and it scared the hell out of me. I couldn’t imagine 100+ mph going into a known corner must’ve been terrifying
Estimated 110 MPH
How everyone aboard that doomed train didn't suffer Heart Attacks from the sheer terror and panic that must've been pumping through their bodies, is way beyond me!
Yeah that’s insane. And I feel you, 20 seems way faster than one would think shoving equipment haha
Truly horrible and tragic :( RIP to those who lost their lives, especially the children. Frank, this was *NOT* your fault so please don't blame yourself.
yea ur right f in the chet those who saadly lost teir lives
:(
Yea😢
Someone tell who fault
@@tylermorgan5230 its brakes fault who did this
Unfortunately Frank passed away in 2018 shortly after his retirement. He can't read your comment :/
Who needs Netflix when you got good stuff like this
Well said my brotha 🤙😎
Ikrr
Ikr
Dude well Said!
Fr
I can’t believe how rude the people in Vegas were saying we have cars that are worth more than those peoples houses. They have nothing that is worth more than the lives that were lost
How sad their Worth is wrapped up in their Wealth!!! They probably have no idea they won't be taking it with them when their time is up...🙏🏼
Wow. I am stunned at their arrogance and callousness.
The same thing is happening right now with the water supply because of the drought. Same selfish attitude from the “haves”, who think they’re more deserving of water than the “have-nots”. Money sure does have a habit of turning some people into monsters. 😒
Who are you talking about? Was this in the documentary?
@@gojewla yes. People in Vegas wanted to restart the lipid line because they had cars worth more than those houses
Frank, this tragedy wasn't your fault so please don't blame yourself. My prayers go out to those families who lost loved ones, and those children
agreed not his fault praying for him
1989 cajon pass runaway
I worked for a railroad for 20 years. They had fhousands of safety rules to make sure no matter what happened they could blame it someone. If u reported a saftey violation or refused to operate unsafe equipment u were labelled a troublemaker and punished in many underhanded ways. Personally i was denied overtime and training that was rightfully mine. My paychecks would be wrong or missing. One time my checks began going to boston ma. , i worked in CT. Patroll said ur checks dont magically just go to another state, there is paperwork that has to be filled out!!! I asked for a copy of said paperwork. She said she would get back to me. 3 days later i called back and she told me they could not release the paperwork to me so i could see who authorized the change!!! Having a paper union that was deep in the companys pocket did not help things either. Someday iwill write a book. If u knew what i knew u wouldnt go anywhere near a train, and u would stop at every crossing even if the gates were up
Unfortunately it sounds like the horrible way they treat big airline pilots or mechanics that work on those planes if they try to speak out as well. Like what one aviation lawyer said, "I have pilots who contact me all the time and ask my advice on if they should speak out against wrong/unsafe things being done by the airlines and I tell them well....be prepared to lose your job." Big companies will always put money over the lives of people and its so wrong.
Politicks are everywhere. You put in for something and NEVER get it. Been there and had that done.
@@lewiemcneely9143 I see what you did there with "ticks" that is a great way to put it!
@@lukeswain1752 Tommy Smothers did it years ago but me being a hillbilly, adopted it because it was so on point because we all know what ticks are and 'poli' is Latin for many. That's about as accurate as you can get for the guvmint. BLESSINHGS, Luke!
@@lewiemcneely9143 clever!
It's a good thing the engineer survived, otherwise the company would have probably tried to blame the engineer if he was dead, companies love blaming the dead for accidents because the dead can't defend themselves, luckily in this case the engineer could tell the investigator's exactly what happened.
@Rayeed Raihan I mean, if it’s their fault then you should definitely blame them. If not then people could just falsely blame someone else?
@Rayeed Raihan that's the reality with most investigations. They'll blame those who can't defend nor speak for themselves.
@Rayeed Raihan Ah so imma not blame the terrorist for a plane crash that he definitely crashed on purpose
I imagine if you owned a railroad, you would too...
I blame all of you 😁
I love how Mayday decided to detour from just air disasters for a bit, it’s a shame they didn’t do more of these episodes
That’s one way to look at it. Or we could say thank God they didn’t make more of these. That would mean they don’t have more accidents to re-enact. Less, devastation and casualties.
@@mgs9136 normally I have problems with Documentaries like these however Mayday was a well done series, and they did their research before doing these documentaries
@@mgs9136 I mean to me it’s not about that, to the ppl that were watching this for the air crash investigation it’s kinda a disappointment, but it was a nice video. But I still wish this video was air crash it could have made my day
@@ambush_akula5261 They made one on the Hinton Train Collision, and they also made one on the MS Express Samina, but these and the one in the video are only spin-offs sadly, and they never planned to make them regularly, which is a shame, as I would have loved to see rail and marine disasters covered in this format.
@@aerofiles5044 I agree, the closest I’ve seen them was Seconds from disaster (which I like) but idk Mayday has a different taste to it
9:20 "It's all downhill from here." Literally and figuratively.
100%
No pun intended here.
I think the only thing I could relate this too is a run-a-way semi. I had a full load of beer on board, actually somewhat over-weight, coming out of Colorado Springs. Unaware of my brakes heating up,, then I saw the smoke. By then it was too late, I was travelling at more than 90 miles an hour. Tried everything I could think of, and running out of options. I started using the center barrier to try and slow it down. It was working, but slowly, When it slowed down enough, I ran it into the shoulder. The back half of the trailer was completely engulfed in flames. I bailed out and got as far away as I could. What a nightmare.
They'll do that very thing. Heat up, fade and flame up. I live and work and drive here in the hills and KNOW where you're coming from. I can take you to a place where the same thing happened but the truck or driver didn't survive. The trail down the hill is still there. Glad you made it. God Bless You!
Lost my brakes twice in my over-the-road truck before everyone had a Jake brake. Both times I started down the grade slowly but the brakes went away.
@@anthonynelson9136 I just got my cdl. I couldn't imagine just having regular breaks. It's scarry enough being heavey with the Jake break on full!
What year did this happen?
I was coming down Cabbage last summer, loaded very light so I was at 60 mph and I saw a truck up ahead of me and every brake on his truck was boiling smoke. He had to hit the shoulder to pass another truck or else he would have rear ended him. He took the next runaway truck ramp and got it stopped but I swear the truck was just before catching on fire. And, just getting it stopped is no guarantee it won't still catch on fire as now there's no airflow over the brakes to help cool them. He was talking on the radio and I told him not to set his brakes because it'll egg shape every brake drum on the truck being that hot. It was a miracle he didn't kill off some folks.
The gasoline pipeline should NEVER have been restarted until all malfunctioning valves were fixed and a thorough inspection of the pipe in the damaged area completed.
It sounds like they didn't know damage to the pipeline occurred. Kind of understandable since it was damaged by earth-moving equipment during the crash cleanup. That being said, one would think they would have checked the valves and the entire pipeline at that location before starting up again.
You think?
@@pamd.happykat8187 Wrong. Not understandable. It was clearly stated the safety valves were known to be non-functional before the incidents ever occurred, thus preventing the flow to be stopped and the pipeline to be properly inspected. One does NOT think they would check the pipeline, because that would bring light to the bad valves, exposing the company to liability of the shoddy practices they had. Profits for the Rich over the Lives of Americans. Welcome to Deregulation.
Agreed. Also if the statement was true that casino owners said that there are cars worth more than the homes in St. Bernardino AND the gas company caved to the pressure to turn the gas back on then the gas company should pay the price for that!
I have a better one than that. How about no engine should leave the yard if not in working order unless it’s being transported for repairs.
Hey Frank, if you're watching this, just know this was NOT your fault. Thank you for your continued service on our railways.
Oh good.. he can sleep now.
I'm the real SP. You are just a worker.
@@franciscoayala1996 Correct.
He knows....
They didn't say what happened with the dispatcher though, other than never being charged... 🤔
Frank and engineer should have jumped out at 50mi/hr and let the train go
I've been in San Bernardino in 1995 and the residents still remember that tragedy as it had happened yesterday.
A preventable horrible happening.
My condolences to all of the victims' loved ones. May they rest in peace.
I lived a few miles away when it happened
runaway trains are so terrifying and interesting. it fascinates me how they can already be completely out of control even if they're only moving slightly faster than you can run.
Ask someone to roll a cannon ball towards you. I ask you to stop it. You will be surprised at what it takes to stop or even slow it down.
Didn't know you could run 30 kms per hour. You fast
That poor engineer…thinking it was his fault. And those poor babies that died 😞
What babies there were no babies or do you mean the children
The children
@@TheNikkirose24
Yeah, those children are 7-year-old Jason Thompson and 9-year-old Tyson White.
@@nathanielcruz6675 oh yha, the chiggi nuggets from tysons
@@LiveStockman usually I'm all for dark humor, but joking about dead children is pretty distasteful my man
"We have a slight problem............" That has to be the understatement of the century!
A way of avoiding panicking the person on the other end before you disclose the nature of the emergency.
@@johnnyh409 ku has
@@johnnyh409 Horrible waste of time in an emergency
In most cases there is no shall thing as a "slight problem". Especially when it comes to things like trains, airplanes, space shuttles.... cat 5 hurricanes.
@@JamezOwnU101 if the people on the other end/at the train dispatch aren't trained to handle an emergency it's not a waste of time, it's ensuring they'll be able to hear and understand the situation before they go full panic
"I'm going to get fired" is probably the most relatable thought to this disaster ever LOL. Honestly though, probably what I would think too - you just can't process that amount of horror that quickly.
A lack of communication of all the important information EVERY time is the key to every failure. There are no ‘accidents’ only events and information gone unreported. I’ve dug equipment into large hot wires and pipe that lay unreported for over a hundred years…whoever hit the pipe with their equipment KNEW they hit that pipe and never reported it.
A culture of punishment for reporting mistakes is why that happens
@@goo1358 >You got it! The railroad didn’t want to hear anymore bad news and wasn’t rewarding anyone that came up with any.
This gives a whole new meaning to living on the wrong side of the tracks.
ALL YOU HAD TO DO WAS KEEP THE TRAIN ON THE TRACK, CJ
Yeah, was just thinking that if you want to live some place, do not go to San Bernardino. Poor people.
@@yeoldeseawitch
Shut up, Big Smoke! CJ tried his best, but slowing down a heavily loaded train while it goes down a mountain is easier said than done!
@@lindalastovickova3335 if you want to live anywhere don't buy if tracks are in your backyard! If you do, expect a problem. People buy then complain about the noise or derailments. Well nobody forced you to buy, you knew it was there.
@@mircat28 Well, those people might acknowledged the area is not exactly prestigeous but usually you don't expect the train will destroy your house, following gas explosion which will destroy the rest, all in a time frame of 2 weeks, or do you?;)
“San Bernardino” and “great place to raise a family” don’t belong in the same sentence lmao
How about San Bernardino is not a great place to raise a family?
@@RayT70 there you go lol
@@RayT70 I was about to say the same thing lol
Leave
I was born in San Bernardino in the early 60s but have no idea what is was like then, or now. My parents and I moved to AZ when I was only a few months old. Is San Bernardino really that bad of a place to live?
One thing I enjoy about Wonder, they do AMAZING recreations of disasters. I mean they got this down.
"We may need some assistance"
Understatement of the year.
That engineer, Frank Holland, I wish him peace. He must carry a heavy burden as a survivor and as the head man on the train. Peace to family's of the deceased, injured, and all involved.
I agree! ❤️❤️
Hope he’s doing well
He did everything right. Did everything he could to stop the train. I hope he's doing well. I hope all those who perished on Duffy street will rest in peace. Knowing their deaths brought changes, that have saved countless other lives.
@@ZenkaiAnkoku2 ALMOST everything in life NEEDS a mistake in the past to make it right for the future. Even today MOST people make the same mistake twice. Can history repeat itself??? YES.
The engineer is not in charge of the train. The conductor is...
Even after finding out the emergency valves didn’t work the first time, they didn’t repair those valves which would’ve avoided the second disaster or at least reduced the repercussions.
One of the Eastern rail lines came up with an emergency system, that empowered the Locomotive Engineer, to turn a special KEY, that would allow the use of Dynamic Braking WITH Train-line and Emergency air brakes. (The Engineer had to realize a perilous situation, in order to use it.) This would have helped prevent this disaster ?
@@general5104 No it wouldn't have helped. The root cause was that the train was heavier than what the bill of lading and manifest said. When the cars were loaded there was no actual weight measured.
There were sufficient retainers set for the weight listed on the manifest but these weren't sufficient for the actual weight.
April is talking about the valves in the pipeline. tho even if they were repaired it would have still happened since they were "activated" after the fire started, but the fire would have stopped earlier since they could stop the fuel if it was repaired
The valves had no impact on the second disaster, except that the fire burned all day long. The people that died, died instantly.
EXACTLY! I would have had heads rolling after they found their garbage valves did not work and they did nothing to repair \ replace them. This country pretends to care about safety but it is a big fat lie and this proves it beyond any doubt! Even the NTSB sat on its hands. Disgraceful!
I can't believe they didn't check the pressure of the pipeline AFTER all cleanup operations (at least use of heavy machinery) had been finished. Clearing the pipeline as "good to go" before the cleanup is finished is pure insanity.... the whole disaster was so avoidable, going back to the train wreck itself.
I've just finished my engine and air course yesterday in Geelong Australia and am now starting out as a driver under instruction. We learnt just a few days ago that when your train is in full dynamic with full air brake applied and you are maintaining a constant speed downgrade, you are out of control as you have no more braking power to deliver and an emergency call must be made. We also learnt that a full service application of air brakes is more effective than an emergency application in this situation as the power knock out switch will not be activated and the dynamic brake will remain engaged. We all learn from these terrible accidents, most of the rules arise from incidents such as these.
Sounds like you have a very experienced minder driver ,/ instructor,yes if you put 26L into emergency it will disable dynamics,pros and cons it will also send a emergency base call to emergency services,start sanding and it's proven bring you to a stop asap ,cons you burn out your grids behind the cab
But going down grade,full dynamics,look at your MR gauge,once again put your reverser in forward,notch it up which I know sounds stupid,then centre the reverse and apply full dynamics
Just my experience with losing air on GE locomotives
All else fails the golden rule is , stay with the locomotive, don't try and jump
Basically what I am trying to convey keep your dynamics, hold the sand button down it will help but do your math before you leave the yard ,it's the locomotive engineer responsibility
I’m so sorry for the trainmen, especially the head engineer, and my condolences to friends and families of the deceased.
the railroad gives widows a $300 bonus- oh wait, that was the steel mills.....
@@tommurphy4307 I'm sure they got far more than that, stop being overdramatic.
I second that. ❤️❤️🙏🙏
Railway workers get paid very well and most of the work is not difficult. They know what they are getting into. Most of them are spoiled brats.
@@krakenwoodfloorservicemcma5975 cool story.
Having a train come through your house. Talk about a worlds worst wake up call.
Well, it happened in real life, long ago
Kind of like waking up for my first day of Army basic training.
My wife was watching this and had told me I'd be surprised what caused this wreck. I'm a career truck driver and heavy equipment operator and the 1st thing that popped up was too much weight. I've seen it and had it happen to me when you get more than you think you have and the same thing can happen. If the right weight had been relayed to the dispatcher they could've adjusted and come down the mountain with either more engines with dynamic brakes that worked OR fewer cars. It wasn't Frank Holland's fault. You work for a train outfit, you go by the numbers handed to you. It was a crash that was made when the cars were loaded. Just took a short time to finalize. God Rest Their Souls.
@@sparrowflying864 I agree BUT I see a bunch of holes in the whole thing, the 1st the faulty paper work. When you run the same route with the same load you ought to have a 'feel' for how the whatever it is you're in and be able to tell if something is haywire. I'm no train driver but have driven all kinds of trucks and equipment and you can tell if you're heavy pretty quickly. 80k loads and 21 tons of concrete can kill folks just as dead as a train, just nearly as widespread. I hate it happened but you got to pay attention to your rig.
I lived in the town of Trona for thirteen years, where a lot of the trains cargo came from. The town is also part of San Bernardino County. And they really let that town go to hell. It's a complete wasteland now. The county hardly touches it except for the tiny subsidized living neighborhood. The earthquake a few years ago destroyed a lot of what's left.
Well everything can be preventable but not earthquakes.
I can't hardly believe that the gas company was allowed to reopen flow to the pipelines knowing that all three of the emergency cutoff valves weren't operational, regardless of their assessment for any damage having possibly occurred during derailment. According to this account, they probably knew before the derailment, and certainly knew after the derailment.
big oil they own politics and, the sad thing is their m.o. is to minimize maintenance and pay lawsuits from wrongful death, etc., that's actually cheaper and good business from a financial perspective. true story
@@galehess6676 Pipeline companies are not BIG oil, they are quite independent, make a ton of money and in truth provide agreat service. They do need to keep all safeguards in place, just as the railroad company should have had a considerable margin of safety in case during the trip another locamotive lost it's regenerative braking or similar problem. Shipper love to under declare - saves them a bunch of cash. Taking each undeclared box car at full load weight puts things where they belong.
@@ZingaraJoe interesting. I'd rather have a train in my back yard.
@@galehess6676 that's a rep for the oil company, blaming it on the shipper not the "failed shut off valves" that are probably on paper but non existent too.
Zinga
I'm from San Bernardino and I remember both incidents so vividly. This just absolutely gutted my hometown. And even though I live in Arizona now, everytime I drive down Highland Ave, I still catch myself looking towards that turn on Duffy Street. It's something that will never leave my mind. And from the granddaughter of a railroad man, the reason Holland survived was because he was on the right side of the engine. And for those who aren't from San Bernardino, and don't know the city and it's neighborhoods and areas, the south west side of Muscoy where the accident occurred is considered one of the poorest neighborhoods of the city.
I use to drive up that road to the college every other day from Rialto. Felt that crash and thought it was a 6.5 quake.
Yeah they showed San Berdo in this doc as if it was Riverside!
My family left in january when i was 2. My mom didnt even hear abt this!
On the right? So, Holland was "up" as the engine derailed, and Everett was "down"?
DUMB POOR PEOPLE WHO DID NOT HAVE THE KNOWLEG TO MOVE THEIR.
I scrolled across this and just got chills and started crying like it was yesterday I can’t believe I’m still alive my brothers were killed in this Horrific accident.. 😭
Fishing for likes, huh kid?
@@TheP725 No I really was in it I lived at 2348 Duffy I’m still scared from it my brothers are Tyson White and Jason Thompson my other brother Tyrone Thompson and my mom Lark Thompson made it out I wouldn’t lie on something that terrible..
so sorry for all the pain & death this caused. God Bless~*
I lived in Rialto between Baseline and Highland. My yard ran into the wash. I actually helped in the search after the wreck. I had just been "spelled" (given a break) when they found the guy at his mom's house. I remember thinking "I was just standing right there". But they got several things wrong with the story from my memory. One train guy jumped we were told. Didn't survive. Hit the ballast at 90mph. The guy we dug out had been sleeping on the couch in the front of the house not taking a shower.
Also, I was there when they pulled the cab out of the wreckage with Frank's brakeman still in it. That thing was crushed so badly you could have put it in the bed of my pickup. I can still picture what he looked like.
Mile long train and the crash site was less than a 1/4 mile in length. If they could have made that corner they would have been in the wash where nobody lived.
I remember this day...A 2% grade down a mountain, massively loaded trains that travel it every day, all the breaking systems on this train failed, tracks at the bottom so sharp a train can't turn unless it's traveling at walking speed, a neighborhood at the bottom of this mountain, a huge frecken fuel pipeline under the ground where the train runs, safety valves that don't work, dispatch won't answer the call for help, and they inspected the pipelines? What huge frecken pile of incompetence. I bet nothing has changed.
Braking
why would they? it "costs" too much money!!
I remember it also.
Yep. They just rebuilt the houses closer to the train tracks and more of them.
Profits before people, so If they can get away with it they will. I feel your frustration.😡
You’d think they would have fixed the valves that they found that malfuctioned at the time of the wreck. Incompetence.
that & maybe make sure all the brakes are working on the stupid train before allowing it to go down the side of a mountain.
They probably didn't get in trouble because they " added it to their maintenance list" : don't forget, in order to fix them, they had to cut off the gas supply to Las Vegas, three times! They might have thought they could l wait for the off season, where the disruption wasn't as much.
So true serious negligence worthy of death penalty ...
You don't know if they had planned to. The bigger the company the slower bad things get fixed. You know, the motto of the world since 1945.
large company's for the most part feel its cheaper to pay out after a disaster than pay out for maintenance and upkeep on there systems! this is just a fact they calculate risk vs. cost and cost always wins!!! look at every single industrial accident and you will see that its true! maximum profit is number 1 and safety is in most cases not even on the list!!!
Everyone involved in this tragedy had one thing in common; the desire to cut corners for their own personal convenience. Particularly those in the maintenance of the fuel safety valve systems and the trains' braking mechanisms were a disgrace. Everyone just wanted to get things done "quicker", without the annoying but necessary burden of thoroughness, with strict adherence to regulations.
I was a locomotive electrician for 12 years. We did the absolute bare minimum.
So sad to see this again. I remember hearing about it all over the news when I was 10 years old. RIP to all who perished. I'm glad changes were made, but at the cost of innocent lives unfortunately.
Holy cow does this bring back memories!! I drove under these train tracks, literally just past this neighborhood, on my way to work that morning. Just about 15 minutes before the train derailed! From where I lived, we could see the whole area with binoculars. Can't believe I found this video.
,ll,llllll
Please let us know when you are available to meet with the company
I saw the fire from San Bernardino High School I
was a senior in high school at the time.
@@Artist452 I was a senior at the former Pacific High site and don't even remember this. I lived up by Cal State and should have been able to see the smoke. I guess I was focused on graduating!
Wow
So there was no disclosure to the home buyers about a 14” high pressure fuel line right behind their homes ? Those homes should of never been put there.
@ But who reads signs . Easier to say I never saw them .
should also be illgeal to put in witjout telling people
@ legally now a days its gotta be in the contract of the house or thats a lawsuot alot has changed since the 80's
Oh, please. There are millions of miles of buried pipelines all over America. I have two gas pipelines cutting across my property. This was a very unusual accident.
Why can't they build pipelines away from towns or towns away from pipelines?
When you watch it multiple times.. you know they were doomed to fail, when they rode down the mountain.. that is shocking
No room for error no backup no MURPHY's law logic
I recall hearing that immediately after the accident, investigators wondered if the brakes had failed, or hadn't been applied at all. One went over to a steel wheel and put his hand on it, severely burning himself. Yes indeed, the brakes had been used and had worked as well as they could.
17:05 "we have a slight problem" just a bit of an understatement
It's an idiotic waste of time when you're reporting an emergency.
yeah just *slightly* an understatement.
@@notroll1279 I know.. I mean you watch enough air line disasters you realise what improvements have been made to communication and cockpit communication.. Standardization... , double checking... repetition of commands.. they do that in hospitals too.. they have to... they can't assume and use different terms or imprecise communication..
The irony in this comment lol
@@caelidhg6261 This line was just the icing on the cake... after guesswork on the train load, failure to discuss the known overall load among the team, not reporting the loss of braking power of an engine to the head engineer, failure to make sure that someone was always available at operations control...
Somehow the engineer didn't know that activating one braking system would release the other brake system - which raises questions about type specific trainings.
By 1989, the railway company should have known a lot better than running their operations without more formal safety procedures ...
Imagine getting in a fight with your girlfriend and going to your mother's house and then you get hit by a train
Brought the train wreck hime.
@@5thdimension625 this brrrr to you yesterday’s time and your address and I day yesterday under my heart heart ❤️
I can just do that for tomorrow morning to you to w
I bet him and his girlfriend never argued again. Lol.
Imagine if the last thing she said was "I hope a train HITS you!"
8:53 Did she say 'realator?" This is the most aggravating story I've seen on CZcams. These poor people lived in the worst disaster combination neighborhood on the planet. What baffles me is that the fuel company knew there could be a problem, and there should have been someone there with a fire truck just standing by for at least a month.
I was in 6th grade at Elementary school about 2 miles away. I remember both incidents. I drive by it almost everyday now. The trains still use the same path but go slow as a snail now
The gas company restarted the pipeline, even though the three emergency shutoff valves were still non-functional. How did that pass muster with state and Federal regulators?
California, dude.
The pipes were aviation fuel not natural gas.. i was very close by.. the fluid sprayed 200 ft. in the air before going off.
@@hephaestus6365 Think of how businesses, are Actually ran day to day. And ask yourself that question, again. Working at a cemetery for 5 years, I can tell you things about those, that you Really don't wanna know. And no, not spirits.
We followed regulations. A smart pig was sent thru to detect any flaws. This is S.O.P. There were no flaws and no pressure drop.
@ But still doesn't explain the still non functioning valves.
RIP to those who lost their lives, this was a movie and a half..
lol
@@Time4House ?
@@abandonedaccount123 yeah why would he say "lol" hes basacly laughing at a people who lost their lives
It should be turned into a movie
@@FaithandNova they made a movie like a few years ago called "unstoppable" with Denzel Washington.
Seen a Amtrak hit a fire truck in 1988 in Catlett Va. Sadly firemen lost their lives massive derailment. Thanks sharing this with us.
Q
So much none or miss-communications along this haul, revealed what could have been the culture of operations at the time. This one could have had a none-remarkable outcome.
The pressure of staying on schedule, for profit sake most likely, played a major role in getting this train rolling, asap. Horrifying to realize you're stuck on a run away train; unable to do anything.
That is absolutely inhumane to not have some kind of memorial for the loss of life in the empty lot. That makes me really sad
Let’s make it happen my dogg
I don't think the dead mind too much
welcome to the youtubbe cajon pass railroad memorial!!! thank you all!
Is someone stopping you from doing it?
I watched a episode of a plane crashing in Cerritos a few months ago and they have a memorial. SB is too big of a county (largest county in the US) to not have a memorial for this accident.
9:12 "It's all downhill from here."
I see what you did there.
Yea I was thinking that lol
9:21 *
@@jessepeeletersonamazin7952 9;13*
@@swpandwleandcsx459 No he says it at 9:21 that was the point
The narrator enjoyed saying that line more than he lets on
This was one really bad accident that was totally preventable. RIP for those who lost their lives. For the rest I hope all is well for you now.
Nobody died
@@dluttrell786 people died.
"It was all downhill from here"
So sad and true
Never trust the 'experts' when theres large sums of money involved
You are correct sir. Take a Look at the Miami surfside condo Demolition. The Engineer in charge who inspected 911 is hired by surfside is not allowed to inspect the foundation He's fighting in court stating why can't I test the ground in that area. He warned that Collins Avenue could actually fall into the Miami Bay because it's not supported the holdback that volume of ocean water
well said
in capitalism profit is the only thing that matters.
and never trust government or their media to tell you the truth
I’ll bet the engineer would have refused to haul the load if his dispatcher had been up front and told him he was ‘guessing’ how heavy his load was! They may as well have entered a giant question mark on his shipping manifest.
Yea, especially since he knew his trains weren't braking as well as it could be
I'm curious why the company who dropped it off to him didn't list it? I mean ultimately he shoulda got on the phone and found out, just cuz the guy had left is no excuse to guess but I also don't see how the other company just drops off a huge load of cargo and doesn't list what should be some of the most basic info.
The way they figure these things out is pretty easy with all of the information. Human errors are truly the cause of many major traffic accidents. We become complacent doing our jobs for years. Know what to do, but overlook what we think is important. Manipulating paperwork always seems to be the communication breakdown.
Sure can be or they just don't want to or take the time to fix stuff.
The tears in Frank's eyes were so sad. Not your fault Frank.
the people of San Bernardino: "the pipeline was fine"
the narrator: "but the pipeline was not fine."
🤣🤣🤣🤣
They failed to see the aviation fuel line in the ground during the moving of the train parts.. and hit it with equipment.. i was near by.
@@mustangracer5124 it was gasoline in the 14" line. Avgas runs thru the 8" line which was not damaged
*The people of San Bernardino* "Wait! what???!"
It was fine when they inspected it. The problem is that they didn't inspect it again after the cleanup, because they would have noticed the damage if they had.
I was a firefighter in 1979 with the forest service hotshots. My first fire with the shots was here in the Cajon pass. It was caused by sparks from a passing train and was 5000 acres before being controlled. I’ve often wondered how this doesn’t happen more often with that steep downgrade!
I think the vegetation is so sparse and spread out down there that it would be incredible for a fire to start. All I see are thousands of square miles of dust and wasteland.
Probably because the crews operating trains today are more aware of what they’re hauling and have locomotives that have working brakes. This crew got one of the worst hands a railroad crew could be dealt with.
2 locomotives with no brakes and one engine breaks barely working
I used to live in Victorville and make the drive up and down the hill. The pass was always on fire. I always thought it was from all the trains. My friends wife's husband died in a Union Pacific crash in the Cajon pass he was engineering. It's a dangerous route.
The Union Pacific and BNSF that run primarily on that pass do a much better job of keeping vegetation away from the grade. After a couple fires they got tired of paying Fines by the State for not maintaining a fire break.
This documentary is the perfect example of a "Wait,it gets worse" story
It seems like a lot more emphasis should've been applied to the faulty emergency shutoff valves for the pipeline. It seems completely insane and negligent to restart the flow even with the knowledge that those valves were worthless.
"we have cars worth more then their homes ,turn the gas line back on" that's one piece of evidence I don't doubt was said, not one doubt...sad
A$ $ad a$ it i$, MONEY TALK$ !
It's not evidence without proof.
Who said this and how much control does this person have? I reckon it’s hearsay .
That's how the rich get rich and stay rich; by being brutal to everyone around them.
@Rayeed Raihan Hidy...you misunderstood me. I am NOT greedy. I was speaking the truth. People that have lots of money make a bigger footprint in society than folks that are blue collar workers. The blue collar workers are doing all they can to survive and HAVE a little something. The rich folk have clout. Thru connections and politics, they can bend the rules to their advantage. The old addage, "Money Talks," is true...if you dissect the term into all facets of its existence. Don't be upset at me for just re-quoting the saying.
Everett Crown would have been 69, and Alan reiss would have been 77 this year may they rest in peace 🙏
I lived a few blocks away. It shook all of us seeing the damage. Glad to see they now fault on it being a full load.
I had to come back and watch this video again. Afrer seeing numerous videos of plane crashes that were caused by combined little mistakes has cost the lives of "SOOOOO" many innocent lives and inflicted life changing and sentences of a life of grief on "SOOOOO" many loved ones, it sends chills through me. It seems the faster the pace now days, the more and more brutal innocent mistakes are happening. From the mechanics who work on these planes and trains to top managers and supervisors of the procedures, it seems there is more negligence happening in all of their job duties...
I remember reading about this in a news paper while visiting friends living in a suburb of San Bernardino. They took us to the place of destruction as the clean up was nearing an end before the gas leak occured. It still looked like a war zone...
The Firefighters and NTSB that had to go back because of the gas line were probably like...you gotta be kidding me
I would have used stronger words in my head...
I would of used stronger pills to kill my wife inorder to get her life insurance payment
@@jacobsaccount9353 like normal pills?
also, *_WHAT_*
"Welcome back, everybody"
Why did you leave come back ( in the pipelines mind)
The helper engineers survive. Why aren't they being interviewed?
"They fail to notify Holland only one of the two engines had brakes."
Oh.
They also engaged the emergency brakes which disabled the dynamic brakes, which caused the train to gain even more speed. I'm not sure you can blame them too much for that though. I'd concede that they probably didn't know that the brakes were basically useless at that point, and that the dynamic breaks were the only thing holding the train back. We have the power of hindsight, but they didn't have the power of foresight.
@@samhouston1288 If they _had_ had the power of foresight, they would never have moved that train an _inch_ without anything less than like four locomotives up front, four in the back, all of them with fully functioning everything.
@@samhouston1288 You'll be happy to know that now if the train goes into emergency, the dynamics will NOT cut out. That was one of the changes that happened because of this accident.
their lawyers told them not to?
The real fault was the manifest. The supervisor is said to have used coal as his yardstick. I've never seen trona, but I can tell you it would way considerably more than coal. He should have used sand instead. Appearently Holland thaught the emergency break was the right thing to do.
Emergency, is not a different breaking system. It just the final possition on the break handle. Stops the train a bit quicker than full aplication & dumps the air, you you'll come to a stop, even if you imidiatly release it, the air will not have recharged yet.
My daughter lives in Las Vegas, so we’ve been visiting her from time to time from the San Diego area using that grade, and have seen the wreckage. We were told at that time the person responsible for that train misread the load and didn’t add sufficient locomotives for that grade, to hold the load coming down the grade. I didn’t see or hear that mentioned in this report. This story tells about wreck, not who was responsible.
As a train fan, it's a shame this event essentially destroyed Southern Pacific. It's also a tragic story that all could have been prevented in multiple ways.
It didn't. Union Pacific merged with them in 1996 after getting the shareholders of Southern Pacific to trade their shares for either $25/share or convert them to Union Pacific stock at the rate of 40% of a share of UP stock for each share of SP stock they owned.
Can I be honest for a second? I hear that Mayday narrator and you've instantly got me for an hour.
He’s so authoritative.
After years working in this area, I had no idea this ever happened, I used to park in that empty lot and watch the trains. That was odd to watch and imagine so many lives lost that we never knew about.
'Pentrex' still has a video 'Tragedy at Cajon Pass' showing the wreck and cleanup.
I used to secure and maintain houses in that area for HUD. Watch the videos and you'll see some are boarded, in the background. I secured some that were the ones wrecked and burned. It was a poor neighborhood, too close to the tracks, the pipeline, and the levy, but folks gotta live somewhere.
this whole video shows how damn important SAFETY is. also, big accidents like this will have a way smaller change of happening again because we learn from it.
My heart goes out to you, Frank Holland, and to Y'all, the victims.
How on f-ing earth could the pipeline operator start pumping fuel again before repairing the valves that did not work after the train accident? I hope somebody went to prison. Out of court settlements mean nothing as the cost can be passed on to the eventual customers.
It's interesting being an engineer watching something like this and listening to them explaining what is happening and then showing what is actually not happening.
i know it, loved the use of the independent brake!
@@johnirwin11 "the engineer saw a problem and shifted the locomotive into dynamics. *throws reverser into reverse. "head end to helper, how's your dynamics running?" "oh they are running full" *Amps read zero. It makes you wonder how messed up they get it on other jobs. It reminds me of the movie unstoppable which was based off the CSXT 8888 mishap. It's a good read if you didn't know about it.
@@UberDAHnooB as a Conductor I found that movie as a comedy more than action.
@@jamesandrew3811 It's in my comedy section. From what I remember, the engineer thought he threw it in full dynamics. It didn't magically fall into notch 8 lol
@@sommebuddy When in doubt, plug it.
I was scared and emotional when I seen this and I don't blame you Frank for not going down that hill again
110 miles per hour!! Wow! Every safety precaution should have triple checks.
You guys are literally , making so good documentary , nowadays i not watching netflix , but wonder"s documentary , hats off for your work
Wonder doesn't make them, they upload them
I watch YT all the time, for documentaries, alternative news, films , health advice etc
Are people so BRAIN DEAD that they believe that this video is SO MUCH BETTER THAN NETFLIX, or any other network??? Open your freaking eyes and ears!!! This video was originally released as a television program! Notice that after EVERY PAUSE, (where the original commercials were), the story continues and there is a recap about what you have been watching. This video was pulled straight from television!!!! It's no WONDER that the entertainment industry finds it so freaking EASY to "entertain" you! Jesus H. Christ!
Cajon pass is amazing. Drove thru there once. Trains look like they are going straight vertical at the bottom heading east..
if you watch train wreck analysis videos, there is always a missed check. every single time without exception and without fail.
"It's all downhill from here"
Literally and Figuratively
I was living in San Bernardino at the time of the accident. I remember seeing the train wreckage. And the morning I was on my way to work and I seen the fire shooting into the sky. Never really knew what caused the accident until now. I do know the people in the area affected was given a very small settlement.
It's been 32 years since that crash. However, despite these changes, runaways still occurred, especially on Cajon Pass, like the 1994 runaway when a Santa Fe intermodal lost its braking power and collided head-on into the back of a Union Pacific coal train, or even the 1996 runaway when a Santa Fe manifest also lost its brakes and came off the rails, killing two crew members. Since then, no more trains have run away down the grade, and now, safety systems are in place for when a train's air brake pressure drops too much from a kink, a leak, or a disconnected hose, emergency brakes are applied automatically to stop the train. Still, locals will never stop wondering, have they seen the last runaway train of Cajon Pass?
My friend's fiance lost her husband in that Union Pacific crash. She now lives in Fullerton and gets his full pension for life and whatever else they give out.
@@TheFrenchPug, wow. I am so sorry about that.
Now a lot more things are computerized
43:50 Perfect example of you can lie to me about the locomotives but you can't lie to me about the tonnage
All these actors were awesome! It helps me understand the incident a lot more when there’s actors.
After the helper engine called the mayday, it’s shocking to think it took several calls to get them on the radio. You would think they would’ve stayed right by the radio.
Cut them some slack they were on break
@@jefferyepstein9210 hey, suicides don't speak.
i agree boneheads
He was probably contacting his boss for emergency services to let them know they had a runaway train
They don't actually say mayday on the radio. The show just added that.
It’s surprising that only 6 people died from this.
6 dislikes were from ghosts.
@@TeimonKauppa739 ruthless😂
amen
@@TeimonKauppa739 you forgot to include families
It's sad that three trains were runaways on cajon pass
As an aside, if you are going to impact something (like a bulkhead or dashboard), get as close to whatever you’re going to hit as possible. The impact your body will feel increases exponentially with your distance from the target :-)
I know this story well. The mineral mine used a system of knowing how much each loader bucket full weighed, and the operator counted buckets to full every time he loaded train cars. They stayed within limits. The company had bought a larger loader with a bigger bucket right before this train was loaded. Operator didn't realize he was adding a lot more weight with same number of scoops.
Also. When the pipeline burst, an operator was familiar with the pumps failing that pumped fuel to top of the hill. When the pressure dropped because the pipe burst he did what he always did when the pressure dropped, hit the button to restart pumps. He did this over and over, each time the pump would restart and then shut back down by default because of safety switches showing no pressure. The back wash valves in the hillside were all broken as this show stated, and all the fuel in the pipe for miles ran back down and was pushed through the rupture, but until the call came in to the pipeline office a guy at a control panel was pushing a button over and over that sent even more fuel through from the pumps.
thanks - I was wondering if the train was doomed from the beginning, how would they ever transport the cars - the brakes, which are on every train car, failed, so fewer cars would just have fewer brakes to slow it. Makes sense now that every car was overloaded. So they guy who assumed they were not fully loaded was basing it on historical knowledge, and it was really the mine the messed up and overloaded the cars.
@@jdierks2539 The Raiload should have been told that they weren't using a scale and were counting buckets and had been "guessing" the weight. It was going to fail at some point whether they changed machines or they hired a new guy who couldn't keep count, either way, it was a bad system of tracking weight.
@@crippledbeast_U-toob It is not necessarily a bad way to track weight. I worked for Caltrans, and we put 5 buckets of material in the truck, weighed it, then got a tare weight of the truck, and we were within a couple of hundred ponds. The giy wo didn't consider the train fully loaded made the mistake. I would have not made that mistake, In the absence of a defined weight, by best guess is they are all fully load. That is just common sense.
@@jdierks2539 Correct. Poor coordination of the company to blame, not any single worker. Proper action would've been to put these kind of companies out of business.
@@crippledbeast_U-toob In essence then each hopper was loaded with nearly twice as much product as the guy who made the "Educated Guess" thought, up to 200,000 lb (100 tons) vs 120,000 lb (60 tons.) It's no wonder that the train went out of control and may easily have even if ALL the dynamic brakes were working.
In 1956, as a boy of 4, I lived with my family across the street from the railroad tracks in residential San Bernardino, CA. I have very vivid memories of those times. I'm sure the tragic accident in this video would happen miles away, but nonetheless, it makes one realize how fragile life really is.
Must have been different tracks, because the ones in the video weren't there until 1967.
Railroad wasn't even invented until 1978.
I live in San Bernardino, I remember when this happened. I lived a mile from where this happened
Any idiot would know that the cleanup operations would be even more of a threat to the pipeline integrity than the crash itself... unbelievable!!
I remember watching this when I was younger and never being able to find it to watch it again. Glad it was uploaded here
I knew I seen this before too. Oddly while watching it again now has me in suspense.
Same bro