Slashdot Mirror
In France, TGV Test Train Catches Fire, Derails, Killing 10 (mirror.co.uk)
McGruber writes with the Mirror's report that: Earlier today in Eckwersheim, France, TGV (Train à Grande Vitesse) 2369 Test Train caught fire, derailed and overturned. Two carriages were partially submerged into a river and at least five people were killed. As of now, there are no direct links with the terrorist attacks on Paris and the train crash does not appear to have been caused deliberately. A TGV test train holds the record for the fastest wheeled train, having reached 574.8 km/h (357.2 mph) on 3 April 2007. Today's derailment appears to have been the first fatal crash of a TGV while running at high speed.
NBC News reports that 10 people were killed, all employees of the French national railway system.
NBC News reports that 10 people were killed, all employees of the French national railway system.
I'm surprised they haven't been attacked before now.
What did you think the French Resistance did throughout WW2?
The reason civilians aren't being killed en masse every day isn't because nobody's thought of a way to do it, nor because we have near-perfect security services, but because nearly everybody alive has no desire whatsoever to commit mass murder. But humans have no conception of statistics, so we get hysterical over 0.0002% of Muslims in France attacking under 0.01% of Parisiens, even while routine transport accidents kill hundreds every day throughout Europe. (And don't get me start on genuine suicide through mental illness, which receives less and less attention of health services.)
N.B. I still think those responsible in France are murderous bastards. My mother studied in Paris and I've enjoyed a lot of time there. But I am capable of putting things in proportion.
It's of course tragic that the French National Railway employees were killed, but it probably would have been worse for the nation as a whole if this came out as another round of Islamist terrorism. It's a sad thing when ten people die, and you think something like, "well, at least they weren't murdered."
Hopefully, they'll be able to figure out what went wrong with the train and prevent any further tragedies (especially when the trains are loaded with passengers).
We will never be the change to the weather and the sea
Don't be an idiot. Since 1981, the TGV lines have carried one billion passengers without loss of life.
The accident was on a newly-constructed line not open to passengers yet. They have thoroughly simulated both the trains and the line, but at some point you have to switch from simulations and actually run a train on your new track.
And let's wait for the accident report before mouthing off about imagined incompetence, huh?
Most people understand and accept the risks of accidental deaths for the sake of modern conveniences, like driving in cars, flying commercial airliners, and of course, taking trains like this. The reason we react the way we do to terrorism is because it's a deliberate, cold-hearted act of barbarity that takes the lives of innocent people for the sake of politics, ideology, religion, or some combination thereof. The tragedy of the Paris attacks is not that so many people died. As you point out, probably more people died in traffic accidents that day in Europe. The tragedy is that those people died so needlessly.
While this presumed accident is sad, particularly for the family and friends of the victim, they can take comfort in knowing that perhaps this will lead to safer operations for others in the future. We tend to learn our hardest lessons from accidents like these. Hopefully future trains will be safer as a result of the investigation into whatever went wrong here.
Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.