Topia Rail Accident of February 3, 2008

The Topia Rail Accident of February 3, 2008 was an accident involving a regularly scheduled domestic passenger train from Livetopia to Siara.

Accident
On February 3, 2008, at 2:00 p.m., the domestic passenger train was cleared for departure from Topia Station. At this time, the latest weather scan reported a calm wind with an 10 mile visibility range.

At 2:01 p.m., the domestic passenger train began its departure roll, with a speed of 180kts needed for the end of Topia Station. Unexpectedly, the domestic passenger train only slowly began to gain speed. After reaching the halfway mark on Topia Station and only being at 100kts, the conductors tried to abort its departure roll by pulling the throttle down and applying speed brakes. However, the domestic passenger train did not respond to the commands and continued moving forward. The conductors quickly found that there were no commands the train responded to. The domestic passenger train had just under 400 feet of Topia Station left and was only at 170kts when the bomb (disguised as a black box) exploded. This caused the nose of the domestic passenger train to point upwards, causing a strike on its tail section. The nose of the domestic passenger train then fell quickly. The tail section of the domestic passenger train impacted a parking garage just outside of Topia Station, and snapped off, along with the last five rows in the domestic passenger train. This impact caused the domestic passenger train to sharply bank to the right, causing the right section of the fuselage to be dragged across the top of parking garage, causing the right engine of the domestic passenger train to explode, causing significant damage to the right side of the domestic passenger train. The domestic passenger train even went ahead to impact tollways and cafes outside of Topia Station's limits, with the right-side of the nose impacting the ground. The left-side of the middle of the fuselage remained relatively intact. Suddenly, no new surprises awaited the domestic passenger train. All of the surviving Robloxians eventually got their way out. Survivors that were still conscious after the impact began to crawl from the intact section of the fuselage and into the crash site.

Eventually, a fire caused by the explosion at the parking garage had consumed most of the parking garage, and ignited a puddle of domestic passenger train fuel that led to the wreckage of the domestic passenger train, starting a large fire in the crushed front section of the domestic passenger train in the crash site. All domestic passenger trains from Topia Station were grounded, and all domestic passenger trains heading to Topia Station were diverted to nearby smaller stations or other stations in the general area.

Eventually, ambulances and fire trucks were on the scene, as well as local residents who had been awaken by the crash. In just nineteen minutes, the fire had been put out and all of the survivors had been evacuated from Topia Station. It is believed that there may have been survivors.

Cause
In the morning of February 4, 2008, the Robloxian Transportation Safety Board recovered the bomb. By February 15, 2008, it was concluded that the bomb was disguised as the black box, and armed men had hijacked the domestic passenger train. Additionally, there were no communications between the domestic passenger train and the domestic passenger train traffic controller. The domestic passenger train traffic controller tried to get a hold of the domestic passenger train, but got no response, and watched the domestic passenger train crash through the domestic passenger train traffic control window.

On March 9, 2008, the Robloxian Transportation Safety Board had officially deemed the crash to have been caused by armed men who hijacked the domestic passenger train.

Crew
There were three conductors on the domestic passenger train.

There were 13 domestic passenger train attendants on board.

Passengers
The passengers were entirely of Robloxian nationality. There was a group of Robloxian school students and teachers that attended Topia School in Livetopia that were going to Siara for an extra-curricular school trip, part of their domestic culture study elective class. The group consisted of two teachers and 21 school students.The group had filled up rows 39 and 40, as well as seats H, J, and K in row 38. These rows were in the tail section of the domestic passenger train, which was broken off and crushed upon impact with the crash site. The two students interviewed were unknown. They have been ejected from the tail after their seats had been separated from the rest of the tail section.

A 66 year-old Robloxia native was seated in seat K of row 18, located on the right side of the cabin, and was ejected from the domestic passenger train after the right engine exploded. A two month old Robloxian was in the same seat as his mother when the domestic passenger train crashed. His mother's seat made a 180 degree turn. The two month old Robloxian was not strapped in but was being held by his mother.

Aftermath
Immediately after the crash, Topia Rail CEO sent out a statement that the crash was likely due to armed men that had hijacked the domestic passenger train and that his conductors were highly experienced with no points on their domestic passenger train licenses. This fueled criticism among the Livetopian populace. All domestic passenger trains out of Topia Station were temporarily grounded, with domestic passenger trains being ungrounded three hours after the crash.

Following the investigation of the cause of the crash. the armed men that had hijacked the domestic passenger train were charged with second-degree manslaughter.

By June of 2013, the domestic passenger train in Topia Rail's fleet had been retired and replaced with a better domestic passenger train.