The Train Crash

The Amtrak train that crashed was traveling at one hundred to one hundred and seven miles per hour in a fifty mile per hour zone according to various reports. A supposed collapsing national infrastructure has nothing to do with last night's disaster. If the passenger train was speeding that much over the limit, no modernization of the rail system would have averted the tragedy. No feat of engineering can overcome someone so cavalierly risking so many lives by doubling (or more than doubling) what had been determined to be a safe rate of travel. Sometimes a speed limit is not arbitrary, but there to protect travelers. More investigation is necessary, but going around a dangerous curve at 107mph is an invitation to catastrophe.