432 Z4s and X5s DIE in a train wreck!!!

[Kirby]

[80?]

PACOLET — The Federal Railroad Administration said it is investigating whether a manual track switch played a role in the derailment of a 69-car Norfolk Southern Corp. freight train early Friday morning that led to a fiery explosion and two car accidents.
"We're investigating," said Steve Kulm, a spokesman for the agency that is responsible for railroad safety. "We haven't made any determinations."
.....
Bunny Richardson, a spokeswoman for BMW Manufacturing Co., the automaker's Greer plant, said the train was hauling 432 vehicles made at the plant — Z4 roadsters and X5 sports activity vehicles. They were going to the port of Charleston, and then by ships to Europe, she said.

Richardson said Friday afternoon that BMW was still assessing the damage.

"There are customers expecting these cars, and they won't get them," she said. "From a production standpoint, we probably will have to build another 432."


Full Article

 

[MrElussive]

Man, that SUCKS. But it definitely shows how sometimes when your dealership says "your order has been delayed" there just might be a damn good reason unless you still prefer to take delivery of your brand-new BMW with the catch of "some assembly required".

 

[Big Daddy]

I wonder if I could offer a bid on a couple of the slightly damaged ones?

 

[jrt67ss350]

Yeah, my parents told me about this (they live 15 minutes from the BMW plant in Greer, SC) - it happened a few weeks ago. The local paper said that all of the vehicles were basically totalled. The TV news and paper had pictures on the ground of the carnage - my dad said there were X5s just thrown all over the place and they all looked demolished. While the article above says that it may have been a switch that cause the problems, I think they finally did end up determining that it was a manual switch that had been moved somehow that caused the derailment.

How bad would that suck if you had waited close to 3 months for your vehicle and were just now getting so excited because the owner's circle tracking said it was now in transit???

Edit: I just clicked on the article link - that's the online site for the newspaper from where my parents live!

 

[Murray BMF]

R.I.P. Talk about bad luck!

 

[///M SPEED]

Man that is terrible. I would hate to have on of those on order and now have to wait even longer. Sucks for them....

 

[tool fan]

What a waste !!!!!!!!!!

 

[epj3]

That's bad, but nowhere near as bad as those VINTAGE porsches that were destroyed.

 

[///M SPEED]

That's bad, but nowhere near as bad as those VINTAGE porsches that were destroyed.

Or that container ship that sunk with all the BMW's on it. That was bad too....

 

[codex57]

Damn, that sucks. An insurance company somewhere is not very happy.

 

[theBMWenthusiast]

RIP new BMW's....