You’re an idiot if you don’t protect yourself with counsel. Once as a teenager I incriminated myself unintentionally while doing what teenagers do, and will never make that mistake again; lesson learned.
Additionally, my company policy is for us not to say a goddamn word to anyone until their lawyers are involved as well. Its in everyone’s best interest except for the pitchfork and torch mob.
[QUOTE=Rich Bogad;162160]The ride from NYC to DC on the AMTRAK train he was driving is 3.5 hours. The ride from NYC to Easthampton, Long Island is about 3.25 hours.
If the guy drives for 3.5 hours, the transit time, then gets an hour’s rest, then heads back, that equals 7 hours of untaxing work, with a 1 hour break thrown in for a total of 8 hours. Is 8 hours too much to ask? Since the AVERAGE AMTRAK worker makes about $91,000 per year, and drivers tend to be at the top, I’m guessing he makes a nice 6 figures for this.
Update: In the very recent past, Metro North, In NY, had the exact same thing happen. An engineer on a run from Poughkeepsie to NYC took a turn in the Bronx at far too high a rate of speed and derailed, with fatalities and serious injuries. That’s a run of of about 1.75 hours. These people are not suffering from overwork. They’re suffering from not paying attention.[/QUOTE]
8 hours is very reasonable. I’ve driven from NYC to Albany many time’s and I’ve driven from NYC to the East End many times, I know they’re long trips. I was under the impression that they were regularly working more than they’re supposed to. Now I know most of us work longer days and do it 7 days a week, but compare that to most other professions like cops and nurses who work 12s. They only work 3 or 4 days a week. They do it because those long work hours are very taxing on your concentration and focus. Its important not to just think of how long each individual trip is but other things like how much a person has worked in a 24 hour period and even a 72 hour period.
“Federal regulations limit an engineer to a 12 hour work day but an internal audit of Amtrak obtained by the I-Team shows employees are reporting exceeding that 12 hour limit.
According to Amtrak’s report, in 2013 employees reported 116, 892 instances of working 16 hours or more.”
Back in the 90’s I rode that line a lot and those trains really move.
As for Hiring a Lawyer, It would be the first thing that I would do! Now, remember that everyone and their brother will be crawling up this guys ass he will be tried in the press (OK, So Called Press that we have now a days) and if I was him I would not open my mouth to anyone but those (NTSB) that are doing the investigation.
[QUOTE=LI_Domer;162172]8 hours is very reasonable. I’ve driven from NYC to Albany many time’s and I’ve driven from NYC to the East End many times, I know they’re long trips. I was under the impression that they were regularly working more than they’re supposed to. Now I know most of us work longer days and do it 7 days a week, but compare that to most other professions like cops and nurses who work 12s. They only work 3 or 4 days a week. They do it because those long work hours are very taxing on your concentration and focus. Its important not to just think of how long each individual trip is but other things like how much a person has worked in a 24 hour period and even a 72 hour period.
“Federal regulations limit an engineer to a 12 hour work day but an internal audit of Amtrak obtained by the I-Team shows employees are reporting exceeding that 12 hour limit.
According to Amtrak’s report, in 2013 employees reported 116, 892 instances of working 16 hours or more.”
You have to be careful with the definition of “work” when it comes to a lot of railroad workers and the contracts. The guy around the block from me is a Long Island RR engineer. If he takes an electric train from Babylon to NYC, it’s about a 1.25 hour run. If he is then assigned a Diesel to Oyster Bay, that’s about a 1.5 hour run. So you have about 3 hours, or so, of work. Wrong. Because he “switched equipment”, he’s entitled to 4 hrs of “work”. So 3 hours turns into 7 hours. If he then returns to NYC and picks up an electric back to Babylon, “switching equipment” he gets another 4 hours awarded to his "work time, in addition the the actual time he worked. I kid you not. It’s the contract. So the guy has worked about 8 hours but gets credited, and paid for, 16 hours.
I’m not trying to “be wise” here. These contracts, and all their convoluted clauses, are truly amazing.
Working the Northeast corridor should require no long hours. The trains run about often than LIRR trains. As I said in my earlier post, It’s easy for a guy to run to DC and back in 8 hours, with a 1 hour break between runs.
You do understand that train engineers don’t have the same rest rules as us and truckers and pilots, right?
They have the suckiest, shittiest rest rules in all of transportation- it’s nothing to see these guys get jerked around from one shift to another and work a ridiculous number of hours in a week- so let’s see the facts come out before we throw pointy sticks around.
edit: I see rest has been addressed here in the thread however until we see how many hours he’s worked and where he’s been…we should reserve judgment.
[QUOTE=Rich Bogad;162187]You have to be careful with the definition of “work” when it comes to a lot of railroad workers and the contracts. The guy around the block from me is a Long Island RR engineer. If he takes an electric train from Babylon to NYC, it’s about a 1.25 hour run. If he is then assigned a Diesel to Oyster Bay, that’s about a 1.5 hour run. So you have about 3 hours, or so, of work. Wrong. Because he “switched equipment”, he’s entitled to 4 hrs of “work”. So 3 hours turns into 7 hours. If he then returns to NYC and picks up an electric back to Babylon, “switching equipment” he gets another 4 hours awarded to his "work time, in addition the the actual time he worked. I kid you not. It’s the contract. So the guy has worked about 8 hours but gets credited, and paid for, 16 hours.
I’m not trying to “be wise” here. These contracts, and all their convoluted clauses, are truly amazing.
Working the Northeast corridor should require no long hours. The trains run about often than LIRR trains. As I said in my earlier post, It’s easy for a guy to run to DC and back in 8 hours, with a 1 hour break between runs.[/QUOTE]
That sounds like compensation rules and not hours for purposes of work and rest. It’s probably more relevant to the “right to work” discussion going on here. It’s not that much different than mariners getting a minimum number of hours of OT pay for being called out off watch, to make a shift within a port, or for a delayed sailing.
Train may have been struck by object before derailment.
The National Transportation Safety Board says it’s examining damage on the Amtrak train that derailed in Philadelphia to see if it was hit by an object.
The NTSB says an assistant conductor in the cafe car of the Amtrak train said she heard the engineer talking to a regional rail train engineer who said he’d been “hit by a rock or shot at.” She says she thought she heard the Amtrak engineer say his train had also been struck.
NTSB member Robert Sumwalt says his team has “seen damage to the left hand lower portion of the Amtrak windshield” and has asked the FBI to look at it.