For some reason it's eating up the second half of my post:
You can see on the first video that there's a park underneath the bridge. You can see the tankers on the second video in 1:30 or thereabouts.
Here are additional factors to consider:
1. The bridge crosses the Black Warrior river.
2. The Tuscaloosa amphitheater is right next to the railway line. New housing is sprouting up nearby.
3. The city of Tuscaloosa does not have an emergency response plan in the event of a derailment.
http://bridgehunter.com/al/tuscaloosa/bh48886/
Add all of these factors and you have the makings of a disaster. Am I being alarmist? Maybe. If it happened once, it can happen again. So the question is not going to be if, but when. My job with the government has given me plenty of opportunity to investigate and study industrial accidents and the convergence of factors here is making me twinge. The good news is that the agency I'm in has no remote responsibility to the factors I mentioned, and thus out of the line of fire when the eventual finger pointing is going to happen.
__________________
Into terror!, Into valour!
Charge ahead! No! Never turn
Yes, it's into the fire we fly
And the devil will burn!
- Scarlett Pimpernell
You can see on the first video that there's a park underneath the bridge. You can see the tankers on the second video in 1:30 or thereabouts.
Here are additional factors to consider:
1. The bridge crosses the Black Warrior river.
2. The Tuscaloosa amphitheater is right next to the railway line. New housing is sprouting up nearby.
3. The city of Tuscaloosa does not have an emergency response plan in the event of a derailment.
http://bridgehunter.com/al/tuscaloosa/bh48886/
Add all of these factors and you have the makings of a disaster. Am I being alarmist? Maybe. If it happened once, it can happen again. So the question is not going to be if, but when. My job with the government has given me plenty of opportunity to investigate and study industrial accidents and the convergence of factors here is making me twinge. The good news is that the agency I'm in has no remote responsibility to the factors I mentioned, and thus out of the line of fire when the eventual finger pointing is going to happen.
__________________
Into terror!, Into valour!
Charge ahead! No! Never turn
Yes, it's into the fire we fly
And the devil will burn!
- Scarlett Pimpernell