From: j.albert@snet.net   
      
   On 7/12/14 1:07 PM, Adam H. Kerman wrote:   
   > If the facts of the investigation fail to support indictments against   
   > the three men, it's unethical that they're sitting on this report. If   
   > the fact do support the indictments, it's unethical that the report   
   > wasn't released so there's public confidence in the prosecution and   
   > so the defendants may prepare a proper defense.   
      
   In complete agreement with what you wrote above.   
      
   I don't have copies of the press articles that were released at the time   
   of the indictments, but I recall something in particular. That is to   
   say, the prosecutors admitted when they issued the indictments, that   
   they didn't "have all the facts yet".   
      
   How can criminal indictments be issued under such circumstances, without   
   a clear set of facts to support such charges?   
      
   As a career railroader (now retired) I really don't have much faith in   
   the "official reports" issued by outfits like the NTSB (or Canadian   
   TSB). Too much "politics" going on behind the scene, and not enough   
   "real world experience" insofar as railroading is concerned.   
      
   Some of their "recommendations" are ridiculous, from a practical and   
   economic viewpoint.   
      
   This is not to say that they don't get things right now and then.   
      
   There's no excuse for the delay in the TSB report.   
   There's nothing very complicated to figure out.   
   This is a simple case of a train that began moving on a grade.   
   We KNOW that there weren't enough hand brakes applied, because if there   
   had been, it wouldn't have moved. If they haven't discovered this as of   
   yet, they're incompetent.   
      
   In lieu of that, what must be discovered is how the service brake   
   application on the train got released (I can only assume it was applied   
   when the engineman left the locomotive, I can't believe he would park   
   the train without train brakes applied). That would have been "easily   
   discoverable" by the examination of the locomotive event recorders,   
   which record time, locomotive and train air pressures, etc.   
      
   It would have required only a couple of minutes to ascertain whether or   
   not the train brakes were applied when the engineman left the scene, and   
   whether or not they remained applied until the train began to move.   
      
   If they DID NOT remain applied, the questions remain:   
   Who released them, how, and why?   
      
   --- SoupGate/W32 v1.03   
    * Origin: LiveWire BBS -=*=- UseNet FTN Gateway (1:2320/1)