In Philadelphia an Amtrak derailment killed at least six and wounded many more. Our prayers go out to all those affected.
As this tragedy unfolds already the usual suspects are pondering whether more government spending on infrastructure could have prevented this. The Obama stimulus, and $767 billion spent on shovel ready jobs that weren’t “as shovel ready” as Obama thought, won’t be mentioned. Nor will the constant push towards light rail — in the name of saving the planet from climate change — be silenced.
Perhaps we’re looking at this in the wrong way. Maybe we need to approach this the way the progressives approach guns. If so, then it’s time to ban commuter rail.
Like guns, it’s human involvement — not the machine — that hurts people. No Glock has ever loaded itself, taken it’s safety mechanism off by itself, then fired all by itself. Similarly, no train has ever leapt from the tracks without some human factor playing a role.
People cause guns to kill people. Even accidentally. Whenever a bullet leaves the barrel it’s because at some point a human choice made it happen. So it goes with commuter rail. Whenever a train derails it’s because of a human decision at some point in the chain of events.
Is it time then to ban light rail?
Image: http://www.panarmenian.net/eng/news/95231/Buenos_Aires_train_crash_leaves_
several_dead_over_500_injured
