SAD, TRAGIC, and TOTALLY AVOIDABLE!  😐

Here is a "what if": Car stops at crossing because cars on other side have stopped, but he is close to tracks and does not see gate starting to come down. Radio is blasting, so he doesn't hear bells. Oops, cars have moved, so he follows them. Maybe not smart, but maybe not so clear-cut stupid.

"The department has said it would like to make safety improvements there."

You gotta be kidding me!  What can they add, concrete road blocks and machine gun nests?

The only entity that is safe or unsafe is a human being, and no amount of education appears to be effective at changing a human being from the latter category to the former.

In this particular case, some other agencies are now reporting it may have been an attempted suicide.

If you watch carefully, the driver pulled under the lowering gate, then stopped.  Then proceeded right onto the track when the train was there.

"Suicide by train" is apparently more common than realized!

Thanks Bob. You can’t make this stuff up 🤓

Andy

It did appear that the driver waited until the train was approaching to pull in front. The traffic ahead had cleared well in advance of the train approaching.

Joe Hohmann posted:

Why do they always have to ID these as a SUV? Ever hear of a 4-door sedan hitting something in the news? I think it started as Liberal Speak for "American gas guzzler". OK, rant over.

Maybe because it is the kind of vehicle it is, pure and simple. If it was a pickup truck, they would identify it as a pickup truck, if it was a sedan, they id it as a sedan, if it was a sports car, they would call it that *shrug*, why should they not mention the vehicle type if it is an SUV if they do it for other classes of vehicle? FYI,though it doesn't apply in this case, there is a sizable portion of SUV drivers (I don't blame the vehicles) who are as dumb as this person, in that  they think that AWD/4WD, ABS and Traction control make one immune to the laws of physics in bad weather,personal experience (on a rescue squad for several years, still have friends on it, in an area with several major highways we covered) and statistics bear this out, that a lot of problems with SUV's come down to driving too fast for conditions (I blame the advertising, too, showing an SUV moving at high speed through snow (yes, Jeep, especially yours) with a little disclaimer "professional driver on closed roads, don't try this yourself"... 

It looks to me like the driver got hit by the train on purpose.  One way to be rid of the MIL.  

Seriously, the only thing that might have prevented this one is to station someone with an anti-aircraft gun to blow their car to smithereens if they venture beyond the gates as this one did.  I am being facetious but good God, what can they be thinking?  I hope it was actually a medical situation like a seizure that made them drive right in front of that train.   Don't know what else could have caused this.   You tell me because I can't imagine how these things happen.  Unfortunately this isn't an isolated incident, it's just the placement of video cameras and recorders can document the occurrence and there will no doubt be another tomorrow or the next day.

RSJB18 posted:

It did appear that the driver waited until the train was approaching to pull in front. The traffic ahead had cleared well in advance of the train approaching.

Probably watching the traffic light, and totally forgetting that it was a grade crossing. That's how it looked to me anyway. He was still safe after he got beyond the gate, until the traffic on the other side started moving, as the train was on the far track.

He who hesitates is lost.

I had a minor incident a while back, when I was approaching a grade crossing. I saw the train but the gates weren't down yet. I decided to stop and wait and watch the train. As I'm sitting there I hear this THUNK. I wasn't that close to the track, but I was in the path of the gate. At that point, I just put it in park and enjoyed the train. The guy behind me probably thought I was pretty stupid. It had to look crazy.

Safety first. Not a scratch on the car from the gate.

Edit: I take that back Bob, after watching a couple more times, phone maybe. Then he realizes the traffic has moved, and takes off, right into the train. Doubt it was intentional, though his move to get beyond the gate certainly was. 

Obviously, there are many variables in these incidents and hopefully the NTSB Report will cover them in detail. Speculation, without knowing all the facts, is not productive.

Phil McCaig posted:

It looks to me like the driver got hit by the train on purpose.  One way to be rid of the MIL.  

Seriously, the only thing that might have prevented this one is to station someone with an anti-aircraft gun to blow their car to smithereens if they venture beyond the gates as this one did.  I am being facetious but good God, what can they be thinking?  I hope it was actually a medical situation like a seizure that made them drive right in front of that train.   Don't know what else could have caused this.   You tell me because I can't imagine how these things happen.  Unfortunately this isn't an isolated incident, it's just the placement of video cameras and recorders can document the occurrence and there will no doubt be another tomorrow or the next day.

Sad part is a lot of the time it is the person feeling like their time is too important to sit and wait, the person doesn't immediately sees the train, somehow thinks like either it is a false signal or think like 'typical of these #**! railroads, they don't care who they inconvenience, delaying traffic by closing the gates way too early so we have to wait too long' (and yes, I heard of these being real excuses given). Obviously could be suicide by train, but that doesn't seem to be very common IME, in most cases it was just someone being impatient.

The standard cry is they should have crossing gates that totally stop vehicles from going across when a train is coming...which sound great, but what happens when a vehicle gets caught between the gates because for example, they go down because of a malfunction, and they can't get away and there car gets hit? What happens is someone bareley gets by the first gate but gets caught by the second?  Not saying these are likely, but if that  happened, then people would cry that the poor person was 'trapped' by the gates and it is the railroads fault. The only way to realistically address this is to get rid of grade crossings entirely, but then who would pay for doing that? If the train came first and then the road was built, do you make the town/state/feds pay for it? Or if the road was there and the train was allowed through it, should the railroad?  Personally, while there have been railroad crossings of very busy rail lines that crossed very busy roads that should be eliminated for the benefit of all, most of these grade crossings and the accidents that happen there is the fault of the driver of the car, they simply can't stand the thought that their precious time should be wasted like that, or worse, think it is some kind of game, and then they, their families and the idiot set among the public blame the railroad. 

Tinplate Art posted:

Obviously, there are many variables in these incidents and hopefully the NTSB Report will cover them in detail. Speculation, without knowing all the facts, is not productive.

Not really sure what the report is going to say on this one. The video clears the railroad. Only an interview with the driver will shed light on the cause. Where was his brain? Because it wasn't on the approaching train.  

Texting...  

I wonder if putting the gate closer to the tracks so that it comes down on any idiot that gets close to the tracks would help.  This genius drove under the gate and parked right next to the track.  It almost does look like it was deliberate.

EscapeRocks posted:

In this particular case, some other agencies are now reporting it may have been an attempted suicide.

 

If you watch carefully, the driver pulled under the lowering gate, then stopped.  Then proceeded right onto the track when the train was there.

Suicide by train happens about once a month in the SF Bay Area.  Some people stand between the tracks with their back to the train, others stare the engineer in the eye.

Sadly, most of the victims are teenagers who walk directly in front of a train.  No one seems to have an explanation for why this is happening.  NH Joe

New Haven Joe posted:

Suicide by train happens about once a month in the SF Bay Area.  Some people stand between the tracks with their back to the train, others stare the engineer in the eye.

Sadly, most of the victims are teenagers who walk directly in front of a train.  No one seems to have an explanation for why this is happening.  NH Joe

It is certainly tragic that these people make these mistakes, but the victims are the engineers, especially in the case of the ones who have to watch their eyes.  I cannot imagine the nightmares those folks must have, and my prayers go out for them (as well as the families of those who commit suicide).  Just the thought of sitting in the cab as the inevitable happens turns me inside out.  I can only guess how it tears them up.

Perhaps the true victims are those engineers and front-end crews, who are helpless to act once the emergency application has been made.

Most engineers are very shaken by grade crossing accidents and by suicides where the people are standing or walking in the path of their train.  One engineer I knew and would ride with occasionally was sickened after hitting a person on the tracks and it was on his Friday.  Hit a woman on the tracks while operating from the low-level Amtrak cab car.  She was a suicide but that makes no difference to someone with a heart.  It's horrifying to have to see something like that.  And after his days off when he came back to work the mess hadn't even been pressure washed off of that cab car.   Poor Terry lost his lunch all over again.