Nevada Train Accident

In the military knowing where you are is critically important.  If you are an infantry platoon and you need help in the form of medical evacuation, artillery support, close air support or anything else, you'd better know your location.  Help cannot arrive until they know where you are.

 

In the world of emergency management it is also critical to know where the incident site is when disasters happen.  The recent train-truck accident in the middle of the Nevada desert 6 die in truck-train crash in Nevada highlights this need. 

 

There is an excellent article in the current edition of Emergency Management Magazine that speaks specifically to the issue of integrating railroad mileposts into your local government's GIS systems, see Why Emergency Response Plans Should Include the Railroad

 

The devil is in the details.  Getting all the data sets you need for your Geographical Information System (GIS) maps is critical at the time of an incident.  It can be hard work and getting the information from the railroads might not be that easy to start with given their centralization. Start now on this vital work.

 

My thanks to John Cease, Clear Track Ahead for bringing this issue to our attention!