CSX Derailment in Ellicott City Md.

[Scottl]

Disrupted Cuba?  What am I missing here?

[Dave Schneider]

A proof reading and editing fail. The Cuba line has been in the CNN coverage over the past day.
Bizarre.

Best wishes, Dave

[John]

http://www.cnn.com/2012/08/22/us/maryland-train-derailment/index.html



"The crew aboard a train that derailed near Baltimore, killing two young women and disrupting service at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, did not apply the emergency brakes just before the accident, according to the National Transportation Safety Board.
 

Poorly written CNN article .. who the hell edited this ..

(CNN) -- A train that derailed near Baltimore on Tuesday damaged fiber-optic lines and temporarily disrupted Internet service at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, delaying the trial for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four others facing terrorism charges this week, a base spokesman said.

The facility lost about 50% of its connectivity, which is serviced by satellite downlink locations in Maine and Maryland, according to Capt. Robert Durand.

A spokeswoman for Verizon Communications Inc., which maintains and runs the fiber optic line for the military, said service had been restored within 24 hours of the incident.

[Bob Bufkin]

I saw that on the news and my wife wondered why a train wreck in MD would cause disruption in Cuba. 

On a side note, no older son just bought a house about 10 minutes from the crash site.  When he has his housewarming, I'm gonna have to jump over there to check things out. 

[Flatrat]

The wreck damaged Verizon lines and I'd be willing to bet the EPA or MDE is going to probably fine them for dumping coal into a tributary stream according to news media. Damaging fiber optic lines or other buried lines is $$$ expensive. I would suspect expensive fines which i guess insurance policies will have to pay. Definitely tragic about the kids on the rail bridge but I can't see how the trespassers caused the accident by just sitting on the bridge. If an airline ruptured and emergency brakes triggered I wonder if that was enough to derail or if other factors caused the cars to derail. the Baltimore paper quoted a local resident witness, Patrick Moran, who claimed to be on the scene right after the accident encountering a man who identified himself as the train conductor walking back the line as saying "a rail blew out."
The girls were definitely in the wrong place at the wrong time but I used to visit Ellicott city when I worked in that area and you can easily get up where they were sitting. looking at aerial photos of the area and knowing the area I kind of wonder if there might have been more deaths or injuries if the derailment might have occurred at another time of day.