Initial reports suggested that a coupler on the train was suspected, but now the suggestion is either a track fault or an issue with a track switch (both of which are more plausible than a train coupler...).
And it's not only in Italy where the arguments get underway about "who's to blame" - I'm surprised that the lady with three goats in a field 400km away isn't dragged into the "debate".....

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Bob Smith
Member of Seti PIPPS (Pluto is a Planet Protest Society)
Somewhere in the (un)known Universe?

It seems like the tracks needs some maintainance.

Swedish Erik Moberg who live in Milan was on a train in the opposite direction, and had passed the unlucky train just minutes before the accident.
- At first I thought it was not so serious, then I understood the seriousness. Suddenly there was blue light outside, several helicopters, ambulances, and rescue services, he told SVT News.
It took over two hours before Erik Moberg and the other passengers could be evacuated from the nearby train. He takes the train from Milan to Bergamo at least once a week and describes the railroad as "semi-hazardous" on certain stretches.
- Occasionally it shakes on the train, it does, he says

Hmm. Swedish tracks need maintainance as well...

Italian commuters, who take the local trains, blame the State railways for spending a huge amount of money on the Treni Alta Velocita', like the French Trains Grande Vitesse, and neglecting the local trains, which often depend on local railways.
Tullio

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and we get the same in the UK with commuters moaning about HS2 "draining" money from their over crowded services.

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Bob Smith
Member of Seti PIPPS (Pluto is a Planet Protest Society)
Somewhere in the (un)known Universe?

Woman dies when vehicle drives off dock at Anacortes ferry terminal
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/vehicle-drives-off-dock-at-anacortes-ferry-terminal/
We get one of these every couple of years around here.

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This is not a new idea where I grew up the bus company did this of course they were two "man" operated driver and clippie Mostly used for newspapers , and the odd parcel that just had to get there "today".

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Old enough to know better(but)still young enough not to care

Talk about lucky.

Police say three people rescued 4 nautical miles off the coast of Perth after falling off the back of a boat about 8:00pm on Saturday (AWST) are lucky to be alive.
A large-scale search was launched with a jet-aircraft, two helicopters and nine emergency vessels scouring the area.
Two 24-year-old women and a 30-year-old man spent about three hours treading water before they were spotted and pulled aboard a water police boat about 11:00pm.
The skipper, a man in his mid-twenties, had not realised his friends had fallen overboard until he turned around and realised he was all alone on the 6.4 metre boat.

Although the boat was fitted with life jackets, none of those who fell overboard had been wearing one.

Boaters tread water for three hours in the dark after falling overboard off Perth coast.

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Grant
Darwin NT

News article is updating in real time,,,
Train carrying lawmakers to GOP retreat hits truck on tracks, 1 killed

A train carrying members of Congress to a Republican retreat in West Virginia slammed into a dump truck on Wednesday, throwing lawmakers from their seats and leaving at least one person dead, officials said.

Minor injuries were reported by those on board. The White House confirmed in a statement that there was one "fatality" and one serious injury; lawmakers said this involved those in the truck, which may have been stuck on the tracks when it was hit.

"It was a very high-speed collision," Rep. Jeff Denham, R-Calif., who was on board, told Fox News. "There was no braking that was felt. We hit an immediate impact and went from 70 to zero very quickly."

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A plane carrying dozens of plumbers was forced to turn back because of toilet problems

The incident occurred Saturday morning on a Norwegian Air Shuttle flight with more than 80 plumbing industry workers heading to Munich for a trade event. About 70 plumbers from the Rorkjop company were on the flight, including its chief executive, Frank Olsen. The irony was not lost among the passengers when crew announced the reason for the return to Oslo.

“Seldom has there been more laughter in an airplane . . . when the reason given is ‘toilet problems,'” Olsen told The Washington Post on Wednesday.

If ever there was a reason for removing some chaff from the human gene pool...........
Man crashes car into Menasha store, steals 12-packs of Bud Light.
Nice photo op for him though.

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"Freedom is just Chaos, with better lighting." Alan Dean Foster

Reports of train crash in SC, with 2 fatalities.
Amtrak crash: Two killed after trains collide in South Carolina

A train carrying 147 people has collided with a goods train in the US state of South Carolina, killing at least two people, local police say.

More than 50 people were injured. The train's lead engine and several passenger carriages derailed in the crash, Amtrak said in a statement.

The train was operating between New York and Miami.

Reports of train crash in SC, with 2 fatalities.
Amtrak crash: Two killed after trains collide in South Carolina

A train carrying 147 people has collided with a goods train in the US state of South Carolina, killing at least two people, local police say.

More than 50 people were injured. The train's lead engine and several passenger carriages derailed in the crash, Amtrak said in a statement.

The train was operating between New York and Miami.

Latest reports say the Amtrak train was on the wrong track.

Reports of train crash in SC, with 2 fatalities.
Amtrak crash: Two killed after trains collide in South Carolina

A train carrying 147 people has collided with a goods train in the US state of South Carolina, killing at least two people, local police say.

More than 50 people were injured. The train's lead engine and several passenger carriages derailed in the crash, Amtrak said in a statement.

The train was operating between New York and Miami.

Latest reports say the Amtrak train was on the wrong track.

Last time I checked there wasn't a steering wheel in a train locomotive.

So, was the switch signal able to be seen? Was it indicating the actual position of the switch? Was the block signal indicating the future direction for the switch? Or which human was at fault?

So, was the switch signal able to be seen? Was it indicating the actual position of the switch? Was the block signal indicating the future direction for the switch? Or which human was at fault?

Yep.
There are a lot of questions to be answered.

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Grant
Darwin NT

Finally got to see some pictures from some other angles. Looks like the Amtrak engine lifted up and rode the entire length of the first CSX engine and then fell off the side and skidded for a while. Front 10+ feet the the Amtrak engine aren't there. No chance for the crew.

Seem there was signals work in the area.

Sources quoted by NBC News said CSX signals in the area had been taken offline to undergo work.

They said the Amtrak was given verbal approval to take one track but points may have been wrongly set there, sending the Amtrak on to a side track and into the goods train.

Chat on various rail websites seems to suggest the freight was on an auto rack unloading track, and the switch had been left open to the main and for some reason locked that way. The Amtrak train was possibly doing around 60 mph at the point of collision.

Withouth knowing how far the freight was from the switch, there are still unknowns

Washington Post latest says:

The engineer of an Amtrak train sounded his horn for three seconds and eventually hit the emergency brake, slowing the train to 50 mph before it slammed head-on into a freight train near Columbia, S.C., federal investigators said Monday.

The impact of the crash early Sunday was so intense that it moved the empty CSX freight train 15 feet from where it was parked on tracks adjacent to the main rail line, according to Robert Sumwalt, chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board, which is investigating the crash. The Amtrak train’s conductor and engineer were killed, and 116 others were hospitalized.

Sumwalt said officials have confirmed that a signal outage along the rail corridor meant that trains had to be manually directed through the area. He said the outage occurred because of upgrades tied to the installation of PTC. Investigators also are focusing on why a railroad switch was locked in the wrong position, sending the Amtrak train off the main line and onto the side track.
Sumwalt said NTSB investigators have also been able to interview four CSX crew members, including the engineer, conductor and the dispatcher who would have been responsible for directing the Amtrak train because of a signal outage along the rail line.

Sumwalt could not say whether the Amtrak engineer’s actions before the collision indicated that he knew the train had detoured off the main line and onto the side track.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/trafficandcommuting/ntsb-amtrak-engineer-sounded-horn-applied-emergency-brake-in-sc-crash/2018/02/05/902b8df4-0aaf-11e8-95a5-c396801049ef_story.html?hpid=hp_hp-more-top-stories-2_ntsb-740pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.4a6a1de5fecc

Oooopsie. Drinking and driving do not mix.
Suspected drunk driver wedges Lamborghini underneath trailer, police say.

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"Freedom is just Chaos, with better lighting." Alan Dean Foster

Drone footage shows huge pile-up on snowy Missouri highway.

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Grant
Darwin NT

Not too smart..............
Man steals car, then calls owner for help starting it, police say,
He reportedly admitted to the crime and told officers "he knew it was not a good idea to get the vehicle," according to a criminal complaint filed against him.

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"Freedom is just Chaos, with better lighting." Alan Dean Foster