Track failure is the biggest cause of train accidents

In a review of train safety in the United States, Joseph Stromberg notes that track failure is the number-one cause of train accidents:

The chart shows the exact breakdown of what caused train accidents from January 2000 to February 2015, and also hints that it's a bad idea for anyone to assume the cause of any train accident before the analysis comes in. The causes are a mixed bag — with human error coming second to track failure. Continue reading more facts about train accidents.

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