AP via The Inquirer, Philadelphia, PA, 3/2:
Life-saving train design is rarely used
FILE - In this Jan. 26, 2005 file photo emergency workers stand near the wreckage of a train crash, in Glendale, Calif. In response to that 2005 accident that killed 11 people, Southern California's Metrolink commuter railroad bought new passenger cars equipped with "crash energy management" systems. On Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2015 that investment appeared to have paid off when a Metrolink train smashed into an abandoned truck in a crash remarkably similar to the 2005 wreck. (AP Photo/Phil McCarten, File)
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Perhaps the most remarkable thing about the collision between a Southern California commuter train and a truck abandoned on the tracks was this: No one died and only eight people on board were admitted to hospitals.
Officials with the Metrolink train system credit cars designed to blunt the tremendous force of a head-on collision.
Accident investigators have not yet said what role "crash energy management" technology played in Tuesday's wreck. But the fact that so few among the 50 people on board were seriously injured is prompting other commuter train systems to take a renewed look at safety technology that has been around for at least a decade but still is not widely used in the United States.
A spokesman for Metro-North, the New York City commuter railroad where a fiery collision between an SUV and a train Feb. 3 killed six people, said the California crash will prompt Metro-North "to assess whether the system could be beneficial in enhancing safety."
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