Senior moment for Calgary tram driver?

[PaxVobiscum]

This could have been so much worse, but even so the driver (see 2nd paragraph) was seriously injured when the tram drove off from the terminus as if it was a through station.

http://calgaryherald.com/news/traff...scany-station-after-overshooting-end-of-track (From a relative of mine who lives locally):

The derailment of a CTrain on Tuesday morning could have been much worse, Calgary Transit officials say.

The crumpled CTrain cars sat off the rails alongside Crowchild Trail at the end of the track just west of the Tuscany LRT station in Calgary’s northwest.

The CTrain collided with a pole, part of which crashed through the windshield, just missing the trapped operator of the train — a woman in her 60s who was seriously injured by the impact.

Three passengers in the two cars behind the operator’s were thrown around by the roughly 60 km/h impact, but were unhurt.

“Just before 7 a.m., this train was heading westbound and stopped at Tuscany station to let passengers off and on. Then, instead of actually heading back into downtown — heading east — the train headed west into an area where we typically store trains,” said Russell Davies, manager of the Calgary Transit Fleet and acting director.

“It’s a little piece of what we call ‘tail track.’

“That train then carried on right to the end of that tail track, hit a power pole and derailed . . . it headed off in the wrong direction from the station (but) there was no precursor or indication that anything was wrong.”

Everything seemed fine to the passengers.

Dan Duplessis boarded along with another man and a woman right after the CTrain had pulled up to the station on time.

“The doors closed and the train started moving . . . I initially assumed the train was simply moving farther up the platform, but it accelerated as if going to the next station even though it was the end of the line,” Duplessis said.

“The train rapidly came to a halt with a crashing sound throwing me across the row of seats — several of the round interlocking pieces were ripped up from the impact.”

Tuesday afternoon the CTrain operator — who Davies said is an experienced employee — remained in hospital but was doing well.

What exactly went wrong on the track is now the subject of a Calgary Transit investigation.

Davies said human error is being looked as a possibility, as is mechanical or system failures, or issues with the track itself.

The first car from the wreck was probably a complete write-off, said Davies, and comes with a price tag of roughly $4 million.

Shuttle buses were being used during the afternoon commute between the Crowfoot and Tuscany LRT stations Tuesday, and Davies said the plan was to have operation completely back to normal in time for Wednesday morning’s rush.

 

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For the speed it was doing, the time of day, and the fact their were punters on, I'd hazard a guess that the driver thought she was at Crowfoot, the stop before which looks identical (even has identical diamond turnback points on approach), and sailed into the turnback siding. Can't speculate other than perhaps the driver was half asleep and confused.