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Dec. 4th, 2006 01:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shamoA tram derailed near work (for those that don't know, we have a tram track that runs through the park just near our office). This morning there was a sudden, almighty crash, and I watched a tram (with its brakes on as hard as can be) screeching to a halt out the front of the office. Looking down the tracks I noticed a few peices of debris trailing behind the tram that had just pulled up. Then we all went out to have a look at it. There's something facinating about traffic accidents....
What had happened is that one of the tram wheels had shattered - literally. half of the wheel was part of the debris I'd noticed. It was insane - never seen a tram wheel that close up before. The wheels are effectively massive metal rings - very thick and very heavy, bloody heavy even. A single chunk of it (about 1/3 of the wheel) was just stting on the concretebehind the tram. Anyway I got to see one of those 'tram recovery vehicles' in action. They had to get a set of dolly wheels under the tram's broken wheel, and then it rolled off under its own power (very slowly, and tilting a lot). They must have jakced the tram up to get it under there....
The driver said that he was scared of capsizing after it happened.... must have been a shock.
The fortunate thing is that it happend in the middle of a park not on the street, what with the flying heavy peices of metal, the derailment and the sudden stop of the tram.....
They actually got it out of there within an hour of it happening. So Kudos to the recovery crews, and it didn't hold up any trams (must have diverted them as soon as it happened).
What had happened is that one of the tram wheels had shattered - literally. half of the wheel was part of the debris I'd noticed. It was insane - never seen a tram wheel that close up before. The wheels are effectively massive metal rings - very thick and very heavy, bloody heavy even. A single chunk of it (about 1/3 of the wheel) was just stting on the concretebehind the tram. Anyway I got to see one of those 'tram recovery vehicles' in action. They had to get a set of dolly wheels under the tram's broken wheel, and then it rolled off under its own power (very slowly, and tilting a lot). They must have jakced the tram up to get it under there....
The driver said that he was scared of capsizing after it happened.... must have been a shock.
The fortunate thing is that it happend in the middle of a park not on the street, what with the flying heavy peices of metal, the derailment and the sudden stop of the tram.....
They actually got it out of there within an hour of it happening. So Kudos to the recovery crews, and it didn't hold up any trams (must have diverted them as soon as it happened).
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Date: 2006-12-04 02:33 am (UTC)You're right though, there is somthing hypnoptic about accidents.
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Date: 2006-12-04 02:36 am (UTC)The driver (and his 1 passenger) probably go frightened. And apparently on the 1st floor of our office you could feel our building shake. I didn't notice it though... Stupid ground floor.