Wake up!
 

http://www.thestar.com/images/021117_tanker_300.jpg

A derailed tanker car rests against the side of a house
after crashing into a bedroom, missing the sleeping resident's bed
by less than a metre.

A spokesperson for Rail America, based in Boca Raton, Fla., stressed that
this type of accident is rare and was not the train company's fault.
Nevertheless, the company will pick up all costs related to the evacuation.

So, if not their fault, then how the hell did it happen?

It was an accident caused by a car at a level crossing.

What is with people’s insistence of levying blame on someone for every thing? There is no such thing as an accident any more; someone always caused the accident.

For some people, this story might be as interesting as the picture.

"Accident" doesn't mean there's no blame. It means whoever caused it didn't do it on purpose.

When machines buildt by man do things they're not supposed to, there's always someone to blame. It doesn't mean that person is an idiot or had ill will. It just means that someone made a decision, however good it seemed at the time, that led up to something bad happening.

There was someone to blame for the Challenger exploding. There was someone to blame for the Tacoma bridge collapsing. And there was someone to blame for this train coming off the tracks and crashing into a house.

I hate that mentality it's always "we have to find out who did this" god forbid we just let something go, we must lay blame so that those that were injured can sue. Unless it's just complete negligence on someones part it doesn't matter. We don't need to blame everything on someone.

Without a finding of fault and responsiblity, the poor woman whose bed was messed up by this train would have to clean up the mess at her expense. Yeah, why doesn't she let it go?

Is that the system you'd like?

Cam, if you were a true American, you would know that a true American would sue at the drop of a hat.

I think it's time to report you to your local FBI office, you unpatriotic bastard. ;)

Ok there is a difference between placing blame and taking care of your mistakes. The railroad is going to be more than willing to fix the ladies house, but that's as far as it should go. In this case the railroad might not be to blame it might be completely the fault of the poor woman who drove her car into the train. Should she be forced to pay for the accident?

The biggest problem I have with blame placing today is it's too easy for people to just say "It wasn't my fault you should pay for my mistake" It's like the woman who sued McDonalds for spilling coffee on herself, it was an accident, yet somehow McDonalds got blamed becuase her coffee was hot enough to burn her.

Shit, you caught me, I'm packing up and heading for Canada now. :)

She's dead. But the point is should her auto insurer have to pay or should the homeowner's insurer have to pay?

So instead of either it's come to the railroad doing it even though it wasn't officially their responsibility. It's called taking responsibility something a lot of people have forgotten about.

It's the railroad taking responsibility while denying liablity for something for which they might actually and legally be culpable in some part. Something done quite regularly.

The description of the accident indicates there is more than a possiblility that the train company is partially liable. It's really quite a bizarre accident.

The costs which they are taking care of are the costs of the evacuation because of the liquid gas being transported.

Before you all start packing those bags and heading to Canada, or screaming about lawsuits..... this happened in Brantford, Ontario.... like Canada, eh. :p

The cynic in me says that the railroads PR people said hurry up and pay everyone in sight so that nobody starts making noise about us using these tracks in a residential area to carry massive amounts of explosives.

Pshaw, I say.
 

If anyone is to blame, it is the deceased. By the details in that story, it sounds clearly like a case of falling asleep at the wheel. I don't know what the mystery is. A lady, who works multiple jobs, leaves for home at 1 AM, looking tired by witness accounts. Next thing you know, she's rammed a train, which causes the whole fiasco. I really don't see why people are talking about suicide or anything similar. The lady passed out while driving, and BAM! Oh, now she's awake.

If there's any blame, it's hers for making the bad judgement call for trying to go home while so exhausted. No, this doesn't mean she left that house thinking, "I have rage, so I'm going to drive home tired, fall asleep on the road, and cause a huge train wreck." No, she couldn't forsee the results, as could noone else that night. Most people I know can recognize a train from a distance and avoid hitting it, so the lady must have not been aware that it was there, i.e., asleep.

This poor woman has already paid as much as she can for this mistake. The rest has to lay on other shoulders, because she's dead, and there's nothing else she can do.