1st Media Review

I don't think it was a good and beneficial event that happened when the Amtrak train derailed on the way to New York City on May 15th, 2015.  I saw the event on Fox News at my house when the coverage began and when it happened. It said that on May 12th, 2015, an Amtrak train on its way to New York City from Washington D.C. derailed.  The train traveled at 102 miles per hour (mph) and was in a 50 miles per hour zone of curved tracks when it derailed.  Some of the passengers had to be taken out or extricated from the crashed cars of the train; many passengers and local residents helped first responders during the rescue operation.  The train track in question at the time of the news report was not equipped with ATC, also known as Automatic Train Control which was operational for years on the southbound track of the curve at which the derailment occurred, and which also would have limited the train's speed entering the curve. Shortly after the derailment, Amtrak completed that ATC installation on the northbound track.

The news report also referred back to the 1943 derailment which was on the same curved section of tracks that killed 79 and injured 117.  It turned out that the 2015 Philadelphia crash was the deadliest crash on the North East corridor since 1987, when 16 people died in a crash near Baltimore.  Federal authorities believe that the derailment was most likely accidental and investigated minor damage to the windshield of the train which may have been caused by a projectile, but did not penetrate the glass.  Officials said the incident might have been prevented by PTC or Positive Train Control, a computerized speed-limiting system that was operational elsewhere on the Northeast Corridor, but whose activation at the crash site had been delayed due to regulatory requirements.  This is where the question about ATC or Automatic Train Control came into question.  It was later found out that 8 people were killed, over 200 injured, 11 critically.  The derailment disrupted train service for several days according to Wikipedia.  It was a pretty bad event that was unfortunate, but accidents happen and can happen, so they need to be accounted for when they do, so that they won't happen as much in the future, with its preventative innovation.

From:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015_Philadelphia_train_derailment

I learned that people should do their best to prevent unfortunate circumstances that arise from issues that aren't taken care of at the time, as per say: the ATC or Automatic Train control issue which could have been installed and could have prevented this train track derailment.  I learned more about how the media is reported and how they disclose facts that are found then and later from the incident or incidents that happened at the time of the news broadcast.  I learned how the people are accounted for that were involved in a public accident, like this train derailment/crash by the authorities and police.  I learned how the media gets into the details of an event and the cause, etc.  I also learned what they (the authorities) do from preventing a bad event from happening in the future or to minimize it as much as possible.  In conclusion, I learned these many various details from this assignment and topic choice that I had on this first media review of mine.