Metrolink Tragedy in the Blink of an Eye
* On May 19, you published a story on stepped-up efforts to keep people off the Metrolink rails. Many people just do not realize how much distance these 500-ton trains travel in a short period of time, and they must be educated to this fact.
However, a Metrolink spokesman was quoted as saying the trains travel at an average speed of 50 m.p.h. and “cover the length of three football fields every second.â€
Now, three football fields are 300 yards. There are 3,600 seconds in an hour, so 300 yards per second would be 1,080,000 yards per hour. There are 1,760 yards in a mile, so 1,080,000 yards per hour--or three football fields a second--would be 613.63 miles an hour. That’s in the neighborhood of a jetliner traveling at 30,000 feet.
Still, even with trains going a more realistic one-fourth of a football field per second, people must be educated to realize how little reaction time they have when they see a 500-ton train approaching them 100 yards down the line.
C. H. MONT
Burbank
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