Tennessee’s David Clarke, director of the Center for Transportation Research, has once again become a sought out expert in the wake of a rail disaster.
Clarke, who is also an associate research professor of civil engineering, spoke with the Associated Press about the crash of a NJ Transit commuter train into the terminal in Hoboken, New Jersey.
Witnesses reported that the train hit the bumpers at the end of the line at a high enough rate of speed that the train jumped the tracks and went into the terminal itself.
Clarke told the AP that bumpers aren’t designed to stop trains, rather just serve as protection at the line’s end, and that trains are supposed to stop well short of them.
The full story can be seen at the Associated Press