A passenger train went over the rails in New York on Dec. 1.  The train was a part of the Metro-North Train company. The train was headed for Grand Central Terminal and crashed about 100 yards north of the station. All seven of the train cars went over the rails. The crash happened near water yet no passengers ended up in the water. If the engineer is found to be at fault for the derailment of the train, he should be charged with criminal negligence.

The train went around a curve that was a 30 mph zone and was going 82 mph.  Controversy stems from this event in terms of who is at fault.  There are two possibilities: human error or mechanical error.  Either the engineer failed to slow down or the brakes did not work.

Tests will be done to see if there were issues with the train. If there are no issues with the train, the fault will then lie with the engineer.  There has been questioning as to whether the engineer was conscious enough to conduct the train.  Some say that he was too tired to be in control.

If it turns out the engineer was too tired to drive and he knew that he was, his charge should be criminal negligence.  If he knowingly put all of those people in danger, he should have to pay the price for his actions.

Criminal negligence is when a person is careless and willfully blind and is allowing for consequences to fall upon the public.  If the engineer was knowingly too tired to conduct the train, he would fall under this category.

Four people died and 63 people were injured in this crash.  Actions need to be taken up with either the conductor or the train company.  Someone is to blame.  The train company could be at fault if the brakes were broken or out of date.  If the company is at fault, they should also be charged with the deaths of the four people.  The most suitable charge would be third degree murder if they didn’t know the brakes weren’t functional.

Whoever turns out to be at fault needs to accept their punishment.  Things like this cannot happen without some form of punishment.  Incidents like this where negligence is a significant factor needs to stop.