Derailment at Seacliff

I was appalled by the statement released by the Federal Railroad Administration that the overheated bearings which caused the train wreck in Seacliff in Ventura County, were “a freak thing, one of those acts of God” that a railroad cannot prevent (Part A, July 30). This is simply not true. Accidents of this nature are entirely preventable. They were rare until the early 1980s, when railroads were deregulated. This permitted the railroads to eliminate the two-man caboose crew on freight trains. These men watched down each side of the train for smoke or sparks from a “hot-box” when wheel bearings ran dry. They would phone the engineer, who would pull over at the first siding to remedy the problem.

The Times reported that sparks were seen coming from the train 20 miles south of the accident (July 29). Had there been a caboose crew, this accident never would have occurred!

There is hardly a week that goes by without a report of a train wreck someplace in the U.S. It is outrageous that the government agency responsible for rail safety deliberately misleads the public. How long is Congress going to let greed for profit threaten our lives and environment?

J. PAUL HERBERT, Yorba Linda