Car Drives in Front of Steam Engine

That's amazing how someone can do that.

Alex

What's wrong with people? Can you say suicidal??

How about the game young teenagers play at the railroad crossing? GHOST TRAIN! Basically a game of chicken at the RR crossing.

Lee F.

Looks like someone was not paying attention.

Probably the driver crossed this crossing hundreds of time with no trains. This time it caught up with them.

Also it looks like the train was going really slow to stop with in 10'-15' after impact!

......and of course it wil be the steam engines fault for not swerving to avoid the collision!

Neil

I believe we all tend to assume the driver was trying to beat the train when many times its simply a matter of distracted driving.  Blame it on A/C, surround sound stereo systems, personal electronic devices etc.  Too many other things vying for attention when we should be focused on our driving.  And I'm guilty of this myself from time to time, despite my concsious efforts to always pay attention to my driving.

Curt

Driving is serious business, there is no room for cell phone calls, or texting a anything else that distracts you from the task at hand. Aren't you glad your airline pilot isn't texting or talking on his cell.

To paraphrase Rodney Dangerfield

"HEY!, you scratched my ChooChoo!"

Seriously, I do hope it didn't mess up those cylinders on the Locomotive. As long as no one got hurt in the SUV, I have no regard for "Hamburgers". That one is headed to the scrap yard.

Gilly

Agreed--you can't always make assumptions. The guy that hit our train (yes, he hit US) in this video accidentally mixed up his meds:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enkh9A5jdUI

Score:  SY.....1    SUV.....0 !

Quite some years ago, on a business trip to a small town in the south, I had been

out with a coworker after the meeting, to explore a little of the country side, and was driving back through the town to spend the night across gated double tracks, although it was still a bright, sunny evening.   I was talking, the gates did not come down so I was about to drive across, but I slammed on the brakes because a train went through at about 50 MPH, I guess, sure looked fast passing the front of the car. I might have heard the horn, there was that headlight and whiz...clatter, clatter, clatter and I am getting a close up view of the bottoms of passing freight cars.  That was a heads-up to ALWAYS look both ways when crossing tracks.

Am I one of the only ones to really slow down at every RR crossing, for not only safety but to see if I can catch a train and hope to get stopped and see one!

Nope. Right there with you. 

Location of incident was on former PRR Bel-Del branch along the Delaware River in Pohatcong Tsp., NJ  not far from the RMT office.

I can remember PRR freights operating from Morrisville, PA into Phillipsburg, NJ yard in mid-1970's. This line also hosted a 1950-1960's era Sunday-only doodlebug from Trenton, NJ to Manunka Chunk, NJ that connected with the Lackawanna to serve Scranton, PA.

When the wind in blowing right, I can usually hear the locomotive blowing for that crossing either the SDY steamer or some BR&W diesels.

Crossing is adjacent to Carpentersville Quarry, the source of ballast used underneath my CNJ caboose.

Walter M. Matuch/RMT

www.readymadetoys.com

Definitely is not the first. I remember seeing a video of the R&N 425 nearly hitting a vehicle at a crossing in Tamaqua, Pa

How much do you bet the driver was talking on the phone or texting?

I read someplace else, that it was an "elderly person", who saw the steam locomotive and tried to stop, but "got confused" and hit the gas pedal instead of the brake pedal.

Now, how many times have we heard THAT explanation?

Heard that one too many times!  If they got the pedals confused then they should have their license taken away because they are obviously now incompetent to drive.

Frankly, many people get in their cars and suddenly get the "me first" attitude of a three year old.  I can't even begin to say how many times I have been passed when I am doing the speed limit, or maybe a bit over, when it is illegal for passing.  I just can't figure out any other reason.

The states require neither an intelligence test nor a personality profile to get a driver's license.  I have to repeat this to myself frequently as I drive.

I was sitting in an auto showroom with my daughter and granddaughter about two months ago when a car exploded through the large double glass doors.  This occurred about 40 feet from us and the glass and metal frame work flew quite a distance across the showroom floor.  The guy had a clipping accident on the street and went into "an evasive reaction".  He entered the dealer's parking lot and was so rattled that he did just THAT.  He confused the accelerator for the brake pedal.  In his panic he pushed it as hard as he could achieving about 60 mph.  the only think probably saved some lives is that he first slammed into 45K SUV before careening both of them into the showroom.  the guy was rather nonplussed by it all, but I didn't know if it was a personal expression of shock.  My feeling was that this guy being an immigrant from a third world country just may have had a set of different cultural values.  I did wonder to myself if he had recently learned to drive after coming to America.

The best part is that my granddaughter and I were on the news for an interview and had our 20 seconds of fame.

Alan

It was near the end of the day at my take out seafood shop. There were only a few customers. A 12 year old boy decided to move his mothers car closer to the store entrance while his mom was inside shopping. As he pulled the car towards the store he indeed panicked and pressed the gas instead of the brake. The car came right through the wall knocking over a good size freezer and shelving with can items. No one was hurt. I was shocked how much damage there was. About two months later I ran into the mother at the mall. She told me what a great story it turned out to be and she loved telling people. I told her please do not come in my shop again. Sure, insurance may cover most of it but it was many hours of cleanup and agrivation. 

I just read on CNN. A 100 year old man drove over a curb and hit a crowd of people. 11 people went to hospital. He thinks the brakes failed....sure they did. At some point drivers need to be retested to keep their license. 

Probably not a bad idea to test everyone when they renew.  Plenty of younger people shouldn't be driving either.  As far as the LA accident, I'm sure the first thing they would check at the police garage is the brakes. 

When I was firing on a steam loco back in the 70's we had a strange encounter with a driver.  We were moving very slowly towards a highway crossing (blowing the whistle and ringing the bell) when I spotted a car coming at a high rate of speed.  I told the engineer that we had a runner and he stopped about 20' short of the road.  The driver suddenly noticed us, slammed on her brakes and spun out into a ditch.  Luckily she wasn't hurt, although the car was.  Said she didn't see or hear us.

Gave us something to talk about for a few days.

John

Years ago when I was with the old Trolley Museum in East Troy, WI, we had a very serious collision with an old Pontiac loaded with 5 people who had just returned from a party.  The trolley car, a work car or "line car" had been sounding it's air whistle, had stopped before the intersection and had dispatched a flag man to warn drivers, then proceeded across the road into our yards.  The automobile came around the corner at high speed, never slowed up or even touched the brakes, nearly took out the flagman who took a dive for the ditch, and ran right into the side of the car.  All five passengers in the car were hurt, some quite seriously, and the car, of course, was completely totaled.  The ensuing lawsuits and legal complications, even though the driver of the car was completely at fault and we had good insurance coverage, finally resulted in a terrible financial drain to the trolley museum.  Any accident of this nature, no matter how minor, no matter how many precautions are taken, can result in serious problems for all concerned.  Should not be taken lightly.

As to damage to the line car; we think that we could see some scratches on some of the underbody equipment on the car.  A contest between an automobile and, even a light rail car, let alone a huge steam locomotive, is never decided in the favor of the automobile.

Paul Fischer

I do what Operation Lifesaver teaches at crossings.  Even then, I have some people tailgating, honking horn, and doing the D finger.