Which sounds fancy, and I definitely hadn't heard of the technique before today. But really, it's quite simple. As a safety measure, trains use electricity to monitor if there's another train already on the track ahead. The railroad sends a super low current down the track, and if it hits the metal wheels of a train as they pass over a particular very small separation in the track, the metal wheels of the train complete the circuit, at which point the railroad knows there's a train already there.
Essentially, once you know this, all you have to do to "fake" another train being already on the track -- hence stopping any actual train traffic before that point -- is to clip a set of wires on both sides of the gap. Now the railroad thinks there's a train already on the track, so the actual trains behind it will stop.
Pretty smart.
Though not super smart. First of all, it only delays the actual trains a tiny little bit; the signal tells the railroad that there's an alleged train already on the tracks, and where, and the railroad knows there's not supposed to be a train there, so quickly sends out someone to look at the track, at which point they'll see (1) no actual train, and (2) the wires clipped to the track. So only a tiny delay. Second, there are often motion sensors in high-traffic areas, like this one. So they pick up Ms. Reiche and her confederate super quickly; like, literally within minutes, while they're still on the tracks.
Hence the federal conviction for interfering with a railroad.
All makes sense.
The underlying offense gives Ms. Reiche a base offense level of 9, but she gets 9 extra points added -- resulting in a sentence of a year in federal prison -- because her conduct "recklessly endangered the safety of a mass transportation vehicle." She says she didn't know that, but the district court disagreed, and the Ninth Circuit affirms.
Like I said, on first glance, the opinion in this regard makes facial sense. Judge Lee writes:
"Reiche’s actions . . . were obviously reckless and risky. It does not take a
locomotive engineer to recognize that forcing a freight train to come to a sudden stop
endangers the safety of those on and around it. . . . Indeed, it is a common trope even in cartoons
and comics that a speeding train cannot stop quickly and may derail in trying to do
so. And common sense underscores the danger of having a speeding vehicle stop
suddenly: Imagine if someone placed nails on a road to cause a flat tire in a bid to
stop cars. Perhaps the car could safely come to a stop—but any reasonable person
would recognize that this is a risky thing to do because the car, for example, may
careen off the road or spin out of control.
Yet Reiche planned to suddenly stop a speeding freight train carrying millions
of gallons of crude oil, as it passed through a residential neighborhood. Reiche might
be correct that the public does not know about the mechanics of shunting. And
Reiche herself might not have understood the exact science of a shunt’s interaction
with the train’s signaling system, even after studying materials teaching her how to
make and install a shunt. But Reiche had to know that if her shunting efforts
succeeded, she would have suddenly thrown the brakes on a moving freight train.
Simply stated, a reasonable person would be immediately aware of the obvious risks of this conduct. The district court thus did not err in finding that the “obviousness
of [the] risk” meant that Reiche was subjectively aware of the risk presented by her
conduct. Harrington, 785 F.3d at 1304."
Totally correct, right?
That's what I thought upon first reading it.
But is it really?
Judge Lee seems to simply take it for granted that what Ms. Reiche did would cause the train to stop suddenly. He says it innumerable times: "sudden stop," "stop quickly," "stop suddenly," "suddenly stop a speeding freight train," etc. But as far as I can tell, nowhere in the opinion does it ever explain why the stopping of a train from a shunt needs to be -- much less invariably is -- sudden.
From what little I know about trains -- consisting largely (if not exclusively) from being an occasional passenger on them -- when a train learns that there's another train on the track ahead, it gets a signal to that effect, and comes to a stop. But, at least in my experience, that signal comes WAY WAY WAY in advance, miles and miles before the train actually has to stop. I've been on LOTS of trains that have had to come to a stop because (as the conductor announced) "there's a train on the tracks ahead." In none of those settings did the engineer slam on the brakes, or make the train stop suddenly, or anything of the like. There was plenty of time, the engineer slowly slowed the train down, we stopped for a while well in advance of the other train before moving on, blah blah blah. No problem at all.
Now, I'm not saying that's always the case if there's a train ahead -- or (as here) a false signal of a train on the tracks ahead. If, for example, the shunt was placed immediately in front of an oncoming train, so the engineer suddenly sees a flashing light that says "Whoa, train 500 feet ahead!", well then, yeah, you gotta jam on the brakes, and that's super dangerous for all the reasons Judge Lee sets forth at length.
But here's the rub; there's nothing in the opinion -- anywhere -- that suggests that shunting causes the type of latter type of braking ("sudden" and incredibly dangerous) as opposed to the former (gradual and totally safe). Moreover, on first principles, I'd think that unless the shunt is placed in front of an actively oncoming train -- which doesn't seem to be the case here, and would presumably be fairly rare -- then the braking would be gradual, just like usual (e.g., when there actually are trains present). No?
Plus, recall, the government here had to prove knowledge of the dangers. I'm not sure that the danger even existed, much less that Ms. Reiche in fact knew about it. Judge Lee says that "Reiche had to know that if her shunting efforts
succeeded, she would have suddenly thrown the brakes on a moving freight train: because "[s]imply stated, a reasonable person would be immediately aware of the obvious risks of this conduct." Maybe I'm not a reasonable person, but I think I am, and at least based on my "common man" understanding of how trains work, I think I'm exactly the type of reasonable person who would not be "immediately aware" that shunting would likely (much less necessarily" result in someone "suddenly thro[ing] the brakes on a moving freight train" as opposed to slowly slowing down until the alleged obstruction (potentially many miles away) was eventually removed.
One last thing. Precedent. Based on what you know, which of the following is more dangerous; i.e., more likely to kill someone:
(1) Shunting a train in the manner Ms. Reiche did, or
(2) Pointing a laser at the cockpit of an aircraft flying at two thousand feet?
'Cause the Ninth Circuit has already held that a recklessness enhancement isn't available for the latter, and yet that seems at least arguably a fair piece more "obviously" dangerous than the former. No there too?
Were there evidence that a train was rapidly approaching (or even close) to the shunt, and that Ms. Reiche knew it, yep, I agree, obviously reckless, 'cause that'd require slamming on the brakes. But it seems quite unlikely (statistically) that a train would just so happen to be super close at the moment you placed the shunt and hence created the "train ahead" signal, and the mere possibility of that fact -- like the mere possibility that a pilot might be blinded by a laser from 2000 feet away -- doesn't seem to me to necessarily equate to recklessness.
Indeed, if your goal was to stop a freight train carrying oil, I'd put the shunt as far as possible away, so the train had to (1) slow down well in advance, (2) stop far away (e.g. at the nearest train "red light" generated by the shunt, and (3) sit there for a long time while someone travelled all the way to where the shunt was placed. That seems like it'd cause a lot more delay that putting a shunt right in front of a train, causing it to temporarily slam on the brakes and then slide up to a location in which the engineer could see that there was not, in fact, a train on the tracks.
But maybe that's just me.
