| 1 |
Maglev Accident in Germany Of course, the Maglev lobby tries to explain that this accident "has nothing to do with the Maglev technology, but is entirely caused by human error". If you disregard human error, Formula 1 race cars are the safest mean of transportation of all. In this case, everything has to do with the technology: *) First, why a maintenance vehicle was wandering on the way? It is written everywhere that thanks to the marvellous technology, no track maintenance, or very little, is required. Actually, since the Maglev is "flying" above the track, at a very low altitude (about 5 cm), anything bigger than a centimetre is a potential danger to the train. Any gravel, piece of wood, branch, etc. would be caught under the train body and hit or tear it at full speed. This is why the track has to be swept before the first passage, to make sure that such element does not remain on the track (and what about a kid, or a terrorist, just sending a small stone on the track deck from the ground between two trains during operations hours. Not very difficult). And it has to be made very carefully, since they are not searching for big things, but precisely for small items. Technology. There is also a need for sweeping train on high speed tracks, before the first train runs at full speed, but just to check track integrity, not to accomplish any work. *) Second, why the maintenance vehicle was not detected? Because it is a non maglev vehicle, special for sweeping, that cannot be automatically detected by the system itself. Technology. On the contrary, a maintenance train on a high speed track is automatically detected by the track circuits, like any other train. Small working tools are not detected, but they are not a threat to the trains, and the sweeping train runs first for that. *) Third, why so many casualties ? The front car was completly destroyed, unlike vehicle in a conventional train accident at this relatively low speed. It seems that the vehicle resistance is not at the railway level, that would explain why the information about resistance has never been available, and why the vehicle remains relatively light. But what would be the performance (acceleration, speed, energy, noise, passenger load, etc.) of the Maglev if it had to comply with standard regulation on vehicle resistance? Technology. Another reason is that the elevated track, with no sidewalk, makes difficult for emergency services to reach the accident site and to assist and save people. Technology. Pretending that the technology has nothing to do with this accident, but human error is the cause, is just like saying that guns have nothing to do with crime, but bad guys are the cause. We've heard that before. But that does not protect lives, just big companies' money. |