This Is What Happens If You Drive a Train Into a House

[CHamilton]

This Is What Happens If You Drive a Train Into a House

Last night in Saltsjöbanan, Sweden, a young woman decided to try her hand at driving a train. It didn't end well: she careered off the end of line and straight into this house.

Swedish newspaper GP reports that the woman, a twenty-something cleaner for the train operator Arriva, was injured in the accident but—amazingly—nobody else was harmed. The wannabe train driver has since been arrested on suspicion of endangering the public.

 

[user 1215]

This is a link to the street view on Google Maps. You can spin around and see the buffer track just yards (meters?) away from the apartment.

https://maps.google.com/maps?q=Saltsj%C3%B6baden,+Sweden&hl=en&ie=UTF8&ll=59.278814,18.313707&spn=0.000005,0.008234&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=29.245848,67.456055&oq=Saltsjobanan+&hnear=Saltsj%C3%B6baden,+Stockholm+County,+Sweden&t=m&z=18&layer=c&cbll=59.278814,18.313707&panoid=obH5PF11aCt-pBRj7x6MWQ&cbp=12,40.37,,0,6.8

 

[jsreeves]

Extreme railfanning.

 

[ScottRu]

I try to never drive trains into houses.

 

[TimePeace]

Not good, guy.

 

[CHamilton]

More details.

Swedish woman crashes train after taking it for a joyrideA Swedish cleaner stole a train and took it for a joyride before driving it into an apartment building.

Crash investigators were at first mystified as to how and why the local commuting train crashed through the buffers at a siding in the outskirts of Stockholm in the early hours of Tuesday morning before ploughing into one of the kitchens of the building where five residents were asleep.

It later turned out that a cleaner had managed to start the train, which was unoccupied at the time, and take it for a spin.

 

[fairviewroad]

More details.

Swedish woman crashes train after taking it for a joyride

A Swedish cleaner stole a train and took it for a joyride before driving it into an apartment building.

Crash investigators were at first mystified as to how and why the local commuting train crashed through the buffers at a siding in the outskirts of Stockholm in the early hours of Tuesday morning before ploughing into one of the kitchens of the building where five residents were asleep.

It later turned out that a cleaner had managed to start the train, which was unoccupied at the time, and take it for a spin.

I LOVE the final sentence of that article: [emphasis mine]

"Managers from Stockholm Transport stressed that, despite the incident, it was almost impossible to steal a train and take it on an unauthorised journey."

Yep, "almost" pretty well sums it up!

 

[Bob Dylan]

Maybe she was Texting or taking Videos to share with her Friends while "Driving" the Train!! :blink:

 

[the_traveler]

I had better go check on the Penthouse Suite and the cleaning crew!

 

[Swadian Hardcore]

Reminds me of Silver Streak!

 

[Anderson]

Wasn't there a case of this in NYC some time ago, where the only reason the guy got caught was he missed a relatively new signal pattern?

 

[the_traveler]

Well, they have drive-in banks and drive-in fast food shops and drive-in pharmacies, so why not drive-in houses? :blush:

 

[AlanB]

Wasn't there a case of this in NYC some time ago, where the only reason the guy got caught was he missed a relatively new signal pattern?

Not exactly. There was a guy in NYC, who didn't work as a cleaning person, who liked trains & buses and often tried to take them for a joy ride. He once showed up at 207th Street claiming he was called in to help and no one checked id. He had all the keys needed, as well as a brake handle on him. So they gave him a train which he proceeded to drive down the 8th Avenue line quite nicely. The conductor had no idea he wasn't a regular motorman. He only got caught when he messed up on a grade timing signal, going too fast and having his air ripped out on him. When dispatch told him to reset things, he didn't know how to do that, and that's when they realized that they had a problem.

He had managed to get the train all the way to the other end of the line at Lefferts and was returning to 207th Street and was in Washington Heights when he took the curve too fast. He'd safely run the train for probably 3 hours, with passengers boarding and so on. Keron Thomas was 16 years old at that time.

 

[ScottRu]

Fascinating story about Keron, Alan!

 

[Swadian Hardcore]

That's a real train-stealer!