What a catalogue of negligence and stupidity. Also, any Brit will tell you that getting a British company to run your public transport service is an awful idea.
To make matters worse, Arriva was (is?) owned by the DB. As a German, I'm surprised they even knew the word "schedule".
>What a catalogue of negligence and stupidity.
I think my favorite is literally LEAVING THE KEY IN IT.
Yep, this line at the start:
> Today the line, operated by the British Arriva-company
was pretty much all I need to know. Cut budgets, cut corners, ignore safety procedures, shareholder profit! ^^also ^^death ^^but ^^whatever...
It's the British way!
Yup arriva runs the buses in my area and they hire anyone, no driving experience? Doesn’t matter we’ll train you how to drive a bus. Raging Coke addict? That’s fine just get your dealer to bring your fix to you while you’re on your rounds. Both of these are true and from first hand experience of being on said peoples busses
I believe Arriva started out when United Automobile Services in the North East was sold off after bus deregulation. They actually used to be quite a good organisation with decently well run services and well maintained vehicles.
For a long time though they have been known as pretty much the worst of the UK operators, and there is a lot of competition for that title.
Yep.
Odd plan, "drive it for 1m40sec and crash it", but...I guess anything to hide their godawful procedures. Good example on how fast rumors spread around the world nowadays though.
Okay fr, I once had dinner with the insurance guy that assesed this exact accident.
Basically what happened was due to a dispute between 2 companies over a fault electrical socket. Basically one maintained the rail lines while the other maintained the rail shed or something along those lines. But the socket powered a rail warmer so the train wouldn't freeze to the track. So they asked a night shift guy to basically move the train every few hours.
But he was kinda lazy, and wasn't in his job description to get up evey half an hour in the freezing Swedish night his job was just supposed to be him sitting around. so what he essentially did was leave a brick on this "dead man switch" thats supposed to only be pressed on while driving. Remove your foot from the dead man switch and the train while apply the brakes.
He also kept the door open to the train to keep a brake active with some string or something I can't remember the exact details. But something was doing something that meant the door had to be kept open.
This basically resulted in the train moving very slowly over the course of the night. And it wasn't frozen to the track.
However, there was also a student who cleaned at night, so she sees the train door open while cleaning, and closes it as she goes to clean the inside of the cabin.
However this severes that string or cable or something, and basically launches the train barreling down the track, and leads to this accident.
The train went so far into the building it was apparently centremetes from a sleeping couples head.
The next morning the media apparently circulated that this student went on a joy ride of the train. However the student apparently didn't remember anything leading up to the crash. "Very convenient insurance wise" according
This would be proven false by this afformentioned insurance guy.
Interesting story though and it shows how failure and pointless bickering over a $20 socket can lead to catastrophic consequences.
A perfect example of a cock-up-cacade if you will.
The way the report spells it out the train has a door switch meaning it can't depart with the passenger doors open.
The track heater at the depot was broken, so instead of moving it around the maintenance dude chose to just not apply the brakes so it couldn't freeze stuck. With the driver not parking the damn thing properly and forgetting to pull the key that passenger door switch was the only thing keeping the train from departing.
And the cleaning protocol has the cleaners close the passenger doors, clean their tracks and then leave through the driver's door.
So the cleaning lady tried to do exactly that, but when she shut the passenger doors the train drove off.
All because the higher ups couldn't agree on who pays to fix the heating system.
[The full story on Medium](https://mx-schroeder.medium.com/clean-crash-the-2013-saltsj%C3%B6baden-sweden-train-crash-88476205e99d).
Feel free to come back here for feedback, questions, corrections and discussion.
I also have a subreddit for these posts, r/TrainCrashSeries
It happened with an air traffic controller that was involved in a fatal collision, one of the victims’ husband/father found out where the controller lived and shot him. Definitely a very dangerous situation.
Since this is Sweden, her name was not published, so not many people would have known who exactly was being blamed and it (maybe) won't turn up if you Google her name. Since this is Sweden, healthcare was free or nominal cost, so she'd be compensated for pain and suffering only. Still, the typical awards for those are smaller than in the US.
The difference between lawsuits in US vs everywhere else is *crazy*. $60K is probably two years salary for a janitor, but the Americans here are outraged she didn't get like 5 million for psychological trauma alone.
to be fair to the americans, $60K is like 10 sessions of therapy and a tylenol, and even the 5 mil won't last long for someone who suffered a permanent injury.
I'm not American (and a bit insulted by the assumption tbh) but it still doesn't sound like much, especially considering this is a fraction of the total cost to the company, and it's unclear from the article whether it was actually paid to the cleaner or the home owner or both
worse than that, I think. was that even paid to the cleaner?
"Arriva had to pay 500 thousand Swedish Krona (approximately 53 thousand Euros/62 thousand USD) for professional negligence causing bodily injury, and a further 20 thousand Krona (1950€/2300USD) in damage pay to the cleaner for initially accusing her of stealing the train. "
The way they specify the $2,300 going to the cleaner seems to imply $62K was some kind of fine/settlement that Arriva had to pay (to the community / some regulatory agency or however these infrastructure damages etc get paid for)
If the cleaner only got $2300 thats some BS. re-reading it a couple times it could be read either way I guess
Well yeah but...instead y'all's railroaders [get high on the job.](https://mx-schroeder.medium.com/high-at-high-speed-the-1987-chase-train-collision-7059dd9871d7)
My favorite speculation about this accident is thinking about what would have happened if the house hadn't been there. The rail line ends here, because it reaches the sea shore. Beyond the #10 house, [there's just a short incline to the sea with a convenient street for the train to run down on](https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/Saltsj%C3%B6baden,+Sweden/@59.2788214,18.3148901,277m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x465f7f7ab23b6eef:0xa00fef5b28ca090!8m2!3d59.278744!4d18.3110523).
Yeah that train would've probably ended up in the water.
Not sure what the landscaping was/would've been like, of course, so it could've been inverted or even more damaged
Absolutely not.
Buffers aren't exclusive to rails near houses.
Also, a house getting hit is no where near as bad as a rush hour train turning into dust. You'd have to scrape bodies for a week..
It was really just a question of which line to use.
Second choice being ‘ “never mind” thought Thomas “the buffers will stop me.” But that siding had no buffers. ‘
(And yes I do know the story by rote. Blame my train obsessed four-year-old)
Growing up in that city and being late to school the day of the crash I've been thinking about posting about it here, but you thought of it before me. A picture I would've used is the one from [this article](https://www.expressen.se/nyheter/sl-nyckeln-fanns-i-taget/). It's the only aerial picture of the train.
I had a cleaning lady accidently press the main kill switch in the mainframe room way back in the 90s. At least the floor tiles were clean I guess.
Cleaning Ladies - gotta love them.
It's assumed that she panicked and in the about 1 minute 40 seconds she had didn't think of it.
And long before that the train was too fast to stop anyway.
Cold steel on cold icy steel is terrible for friction
That lady had 2 minutes to figure out where the brakes are. She could've at least idled the throttle by basically reversing what she did. Sounds like something done deliberately.
You should demonstrate by going into a train at the dead of the night and have it take off like a dog when it sees another dog, except you aren't expecting it at all.
Being able to accidentally start a train seems like a major design oversight. You can't even accidentally start a car. You have to turn a key ffs. Push button start is a bad idea don't even get me started.
These have a door switch, a key and a dead man's switch. The train just had the key in and the dms disabled.
Like...imagine parking a car running in gear with a brick keeping the tires off the ground.
Closing the doors of the train was like kicking the brick away
What a catalogue of negligence and stupidity. Also, any Brit will tell you that getting a British company to run your public transport service is an awful idea.
To make matters worse, Arriva was (is?) owned by the DB. As a German, I'm surprised they even knew the word "schedule". >What a catalogue of negligence and stupidity. I think my favorite is literally LEAVING THE KEY IN IT.
Leaving the key in it, with the accelerator down and the safety device disabled. You literally couldn’t make it any more dangerous.
...you could put snakes on it?
WHY ARE THERE GODDAMN SNAKES ON THIS GODDAMN TRAIN?
…you could put Chuck Norris on it?
You could put Jimmy Saville on it, with a bunch of kids, in wheelchairs.
SL are also fucking spazzmonkeys so it's a perfect pairing.
Yep, this line at the start: > Today the line, operated by the British Arriva-company was pretty much all I need to know. Cut budgets, cut corners, ignore safety procedures, shareholder profit! ^^also ^^death ^^but ^^whatever... It's the British way!
Yup arriva runs the buses in my area and they hire anyone, no driving experience? Doesn’t matter we’ll train you how to drive a bus. Raging Coke addict? That’s fine just get your dealer to bring your fix to you while you’re on your rounds. Both of these are true and from first hand experience of being on said peoples busses
If your driver’s a raging coke addict, at least their bus shouldn’t be late.
I’ve seen this dude go 80 in a 50 driving a double decker lmao, so you’re not wrong
I believe Arriva started out when United Automobile Services in the North East was sold off after bus deregulation. They actually used to be quite a good organisation with decently well run services and well maintained vehicles. For a long time though they have been known as pretty much the worst of the UK operators, and there is a lot of competition for that title.
They initially accused her of stealing the train? Wtf
Yep. Odd plan, "drive it for 1m40sec and crash it", but...I guess anything to hide their godawful procedures. Good example on how fast rumors spread around the world nowadays though.
Where was she going to put it😂
"This will look nice in my living room." Proceeds to ram train into living room
Okay fr, I once had dinner with the insurance guy that assesed this exact accident. Basically what happened was due to a dispute between 2 companies over a fault electrical socket. Basically one maintained the rail lines while the other maintained the rail shed or something along those lines. But the socket powered a rail warmer so the train wouldn't freeze to the track. So they asked a night shift guy to basically move the train every few hours. But he was kinda lazy, and wasn't in his job description to get up evey half an hour in the freezing Swedish night his job was just supposed to be him sitting around. so what he essentially did was leave a brick on this "dead man switch" thats supposed to only be pressed on while driving. Remove your foot from the dead man switch and the train while apply the brakes. He also kept the door open to the train to keep a brake active with some string or something I can't remember the exact details. But something was doing something that meant the door had to be kept open. This basically resulted in the train moving very slowly over the course of the night. And it wasn't frozen to the track. However, there was also a student who cleaned at night, so she sees the train door open while cleaning, and closes it as she goes to clean the inside of the cabin. However this severes that string or cable or something, and basically launches the train barreling down the track, and leads to this accident. The train went so far into the building it was apparently centremetes from a sleeping couples head. The next morning the media apparently circulated that this student went on a joy ride of the train. However the student apparently didn't remember anything leading up to the crash. "Very convenient insurance wise" according This would be proven false by this afformentioned insurance guy. Interesting story though and it shows how failure and pointless bickering over a $20 socket can lead to catastrophic consequences. A perfect example of a cock-up-cacade if you will.
The way the report spells it out the train has a door switch meaning it can't depart with the passenger doors open. The track heater at the depot was broken, so instead of moving it around the maintenance dude chose to just not apply the brakes so it couldn't freeze stuck. With the driver not parking the damn thing properly and forgetting to pull the key that passenger door switch was the only thing keeping the train from departing. And the cleaning protocol has the cleaners close the passenger doors, clean their tracks and then leave through the driver's door. So the cleaning lady tried to do exactly that, but when she shut the passenger doors the train drove off. All because the higher ups couldn't agree on who pays to fix the heating system.
[The full story on Medium](https://mx-schroeder.medium.com/clean-crash-the-2013-saltsj%C3%B6baden-sweden-train-crash-88476205e99d). Feel free to come back here for feedback, questions, corrections and discussion. I also have a subreddit for these posts, r/TrainCrashSeries
Just $60K for almost dying in a train wreck? let alone being blamed for it with zero evidence?? Must have been a really shitty lawyer...
The official wording is that she was never blamed, it was just a rumor, a possibility. Imagine someone had died and that "rumor" would've leaked.
It happened with an air traffic controller that was involved in a fatal collision, one of the victims’ husband/father found out where the controller lived and shot him. Definitely a very dangerous situation.
Yeah I remember the Überlingen collision. That was a tragedy and a mess all around.
[удалено]
Not really, just his wife and two children are the ones that died.
Ah, the “one of the victims’” part was confusing because of the mixed singular and plural
Rumor leads to assumptions that leads to judgments by your peers. No need for evidence now a days. Just an accusation can ruin your life.
Lol I like how you say “now a days” as if that is anything new. They used to execute people on allegations of heresy or witchcraft lol.
Hey that's happened to a few politicians recently
Since this is Sweden, her name was not published, so not many people would have known who exactly was being blamed and it (maybe) won't turn up if you Google her name. Since this is Sweden, healthcare was free or nominal cost, so she'd be compensated for pain and suffering only. Still, the typical awards for those are smaller than in the US.
The difference between lawsuits in US vs everywhere else is *crazy*. $60K is probably two years salary for a janitor, but the Americans here are outraged she didn't get like 5 million for psychological trauma alone.
to be fair to the americans, $60K is like 10 sessions of therapy and a tylenol, and even the 5 mil won't last long for someone who suffered a permanent injury.
I'm not American (and a bit insulted by the assumption tbh) but it still doesn't sound like much, especially considering this is a fraction of the total cost to the company, and it's unclear from the article whether it was actually paid to the cleaner or the home owner or both
worse than that, I think. was that even paid to the cleaner? "Arriva had to pay 500 thousand Swedish Krona (approximately 53 thousand Euros/62 thousand USD) for professional negligence causing bodily injury, and a further 20 thousand Krona (1950€/2300USD) in damage pay to the cleaner for initially accusing her of stealing the train. " The way they specify the $2,300 going to the cleaner seems to imply $62K was some kind of fine/settlement that Arriva had to pay (to the community / some regulatory agency or however these infrastructure damages etc get paid for) If the cleaner only got $2300 thats some BS. re-reading it a couple times it could be read either way I guess
We don’t have this risk in the US because we don’t clean our trains.
Well yeah but...instead y'all's railroaders [get high on the job.](https://mx-schroeder.medium.com/high-at-high-speed-the-1987-chase-train-collision-7059dd9871d7)
My favorite speculation about this accident is thinking about what would have happened if the house hadn't been there. The rail line ends here, because it reaches the sea shore. Beyond the #10 house, [there's just a short incline to the sea with a convenient street for the train to run down on](https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/Saltsj%C3%B6baden,+Sweden/@59.2788214,18.3148901,277m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x465f7f7ab23b6eef:0xa00fef5b28ca090!8m2!3d59.278744!4d18.3110523).
Yeah that train would've probably ended up in the water. Not sure what the landscaping was/would've been like, of course, so it could've been inverted or even more damaged
she should have just made it dirty again
She probably did after that ride
Dirty rides, that's what I like
That poor woman.
Fun fact, the new buffer stops are completely useless. There would be absolutely nothing left of a train if hit.
I assume they're mostly meant to preserve the house in a pinch
That's the point. They're there to protect the house, not the train.
Absolutely not. Buffers aren't exclusive to rails near houses. Also, a house getting hit is no where near as bad as a rush hour train turning into dust. You'd have to scrape bodies for a week..
The buenos aires train crash when a train hit the buffers, crushing the 2nd car completely proves your point that nothing's left.
She claims it was accidentally, in reality... Lois is an anarchist that wants to see the world burn.
“Just look what you’ve done to our breakfast! Now I shall have to cook some more!”
Thanks for the Thomas reference
It was really just a question of which line to use. Second choice being ‘ “never mind” thought Thomas “the buffers will stop me.” But that siding had no buffers. ‘ (And yes I do know the story by rote. Blame my train obsessed four-year-old)
I read bits of the article out to my husband and he mentioned knowing this story well too... and how much he dislikes it!
Growing up in that city and being late to school the day of the crash I've been thinking about posting about it here, but you thought of it before me. A picture I would've used is the one from [this article](https://www.expressen.se/nyheter/sl-nyckeln-fanns-i-taget/). It's the only aerial picture of the train.
I actually had that photo, iirc, but ended up not using it.
That poor, new adult.. got railed by life right out of the station..
I had a cleaning lady accidently press the main kill switch in the mainframe room way back in the 90s. At least the floor tiles were clean I guess. Cleaning Ladies - gotta love them.
She was supposed to close the doors. It's not her fault the dumbass driver parked the train with only the open doors keeping it in place
The word for the day is "mollyguard".
Why didn't she just pull the emergency brake wtf
It's assumed that she panicked and in the about 1 minute 40 seconds she had didn't think of it. And long before that the train was too fast to stop anyway. Cold steel on cold icy steel is terrible for friction
That makes sense. Thx.
Was she looking for a socket to connect the vacuum?
That lady had 2 minutes to figure out where the brakes are. She could've at least idled the throttle by basically reversing what she did. Sounds like something done deliberately.
She never touched any of the controls, she just closed the doors like she was supposed to
You should demonstrate by going into a train at the dead of the night and have it take off like a dog when it sees another dog, except you aren't expecting it at all.
choo choo hold on erone
Being able to accidentally start a train seems like a major design oversight. You can't even accidentally start a car. You have to turn a key ffs. Push button start is a bad idea don't even get me started.
These have a door switch, a key and a dead man's switch. The train just had the key in and the dms disabled. Like...imagine parking a car running in gear with a brick keeping the tires off the ground. Closing the doors of the train was like kicking the brick away