"broke" 'braked'

[Wilson Gray]

I don't know, arnold. I think that the description may well have been
accurate as originally published. If I had found myself rushing
head-on into an oncoming train with only five or six seconds in which
to react, I would have broken immediately, not three or four seconds
later!

-Wilson

On Wed, Sep 17, 2008 at 11:07 AM, Arnold M. Zwicky
<zwicky at csli.stanford.edu> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Arnold M. Zwicky" <zwicky at CSLI.STANFORD.EDU>
> Subject:      "broke" 'braked'
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> interesting error, with "break" interfering with "brake" (reported to
> me by Ned Deily):
>
> NTSB: Train engineer didn't brake before crash
> By DAISY NGUYEN, Associated Press Writer
>
> Tuesday, September 16, 2008
>
> (09-16) 22:42 PDT Los Angeles, CA (AP) --
>
> The Metrolink engineer whose commuter train struck an oncoming freight
> last week did not brake in the moments before the collision and was in
> the midst of an 11 1/2-hour split shift when he ran the red light that
> could have prevented the wreck.
>
> The findings followed tests by the National Transportation Safety
> Board that showed engineers from the two trains had only four to five
> seconds to react to the sight of other train coming around the bend.
> Investigators said the engineer from the Union Pacific freight broke
> about two seconds before the collision, which killed 25 people and
> injured more than 135 others on Friday afternoon.
>
> [...]
> .....
>
> the story online has now been edited, with "broke" replaced by "used
> his brakes":
>
> http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2008/09/16/national/a163546D75.DTL
>
> arnold
>
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>



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