FedEx Truck Vs. UTA Train

Hot Water posted:

Latest results of preliminary investigation:  HUMAN ERROR!!!!

The Maintainer was called out to that location due to the gates and flashing warning lights being activated, with no trains. The Maintainer subsequently "turned off" the system so that the lights would stop and the gates would raise, however he did NOT follow proper protocols and safety procedures, thus when the commuter train came, the gates & lights were "disabled" by the Maintainer. Also, the train had been notified, and had reduced speed, but was unable top stop prior to the street crossing.

Hot Water,

Needless to say the maintainer will be "dancing on the carpet" as some old RR saying goes that I read.  No doubt dancing on the carpet right out the door and and into some court room for negligence of the resulting injuries.  Hope the ex-maintainer has a second non RR job to go to (maybe janitor, store stocker, bar keep etc).

OGR Webmaster posted:

Too may people drive today and NEVER look beyond a car length or two in front of them. Makes for some interesting scenes when traffic stops and they don't see it coming until the guy in front of them hits the brakes. Or the interstate merge to one lane drill and they don't know anything about it until they get about 5 car lengths from the big flashing arrow sign. Evidently they didn't see any of the bright orange MERGE signs along the road for the last two miles.

Might be the same thing in play here.

Agree, but I think most people expect RR warning signals to work 100% just like stepping on brake pedal and car/truck brakes work....until they don't.

With my hearing loss I am more "afraid" of the crossbuck only crossings, so I always slow down especially at unfamiliar one.  As the RR rule says [paraphrase]: expect train movement any time from any direction.

Also, the train had been notified, and had reduced speed, but was unable top stop prior to the street crossing.

I'm wondering just how much notice the train crew had?   (should they have stopped and flagged the crossing?)

Gregg posted:

Also, the train had been notified, and had reduced speed, but was unable top stop prior to the street crossing.

 

I'm wondering just how much notice the train crew had?   (should they have stopped and flagged the crossing?)

Obviously NOT enough!

Well train crews  have to occasionally flag crossings.

  In this case we don't know how , when or how far from the crossing they were notified.. They may be walking the street along with the signal  maintainer. It's very fortunate no one was injured.

Gregg posted:

Well train crews  have to occasionally flag crossings.

Train crews on passenger trains???????

  In this case we don't know how , when or how far from the crossing they were notified.. They may be walking the street along with the signal  maintainer. It's very fortunate no one was injured.

Hot Water posted:

Gregg posted:

Well train crews  have to occasionally flag crossings.

Train crews on passenger trains???????

  In this case we don't know how , when or how far from the crossing they were notified.. They may be walking the street along with the signal  maintainer. It's very fortunate no one was injured.

 

One could argue any CDL truck needs to stop because of the fuel the truck is using.  Could rupture and ignite.

Hot Water posted:

Gregg posted:

Well train crews  have to occasionally flag crossings.

Train crews on passenger trains???????

 

Why would you question that? Who do you think was going to flag that crossing?

Now, I would have at least pulled up a lot closer to the crossing so my brakeman/conductor didn't have to walk as far.

Dominic Mazoch posted:

One could argue any CDL truck needs to stop because of the fuel the truck is using.  Could rupture and ignite.

You're Kidding Right?

You DO realize that the gasoline in your car is MUCH more volatile than diesel fuel?

The fuel in your car poses a much greater risk than the fuel in a commercial truck. so maybe CARS and Trucks should ALL stop at ALL RR crossings. Lets not forget the PROPANE, found in RV's, there's some Nasty stuff in a BAD situation.

So I guess ALL vehicles really ought to STOP at all crossings. Think of the money that would save, if ALL vehicles STOPPED at ALL crossings, there would be no need for those Expensive, Fallible crossing signals and gates, and an accident like this would NEVER, EVER happen again.

We should get together some time, I will bring a couple of coffee cans and some matches. I will fill MY can with a quart of DIESEL, and YOUR can with a quart of GASOLINE. I get to drop MY lit match FIRST, because:

1) I want you to see what happens when I drop the lit match in MY can.

2) I want to be well clear of you and your can, when you drop your match.

Doug

Jan 30th crash update. Hint: Maintainer no longer works there.

http://fox13now.com/2017/01/30...r-train-fedex-truck/