It Happened Again -ANOTHER INATTENTIVE DRIVER DRIVES IN FRONT OF A TRAIN.

So, she drove around the lowered gates?

 

The "solution" is for drivers to obey the law and quit blaming the railroads for these accidents.

Incorrect title, but in the correct forum......

And how many tens of billions of dollars will it cost to re-work the infrastructure to make this "separation" a reality?  Are you going to make the first donation?  

 

How many people are killed every year in tractor-trailer related accidents?   Are we going to separate them next?   Heck, let's just build separate roads!  

 

And yet stupid, inattentive people will continue to kill themselves in creative ways.  I'm reminded of the old (but true) saying:  It is impossible to make a truly fool-proof device.. because fools are so ingenious...

 

This time it was a suburban woman and a commuter train - next time it will be some drunk redneck in a pickup truck out in the middle of nowhere getting obliterated by a UP grain train.   It never ends; it never will.  Life is risk; there are no guarantees.   Be aware of your surroundings, pay attention, and don't think "it can't happen to you" because as soon as you do, it can and it will.   

 

The real solution:   rectal-cranial extraction.

 

(I'll give you all a few minutes to parse that one out )

That is not going to buff out! What is wrong with people??

I guess you just can't fix stupid. 

Stupidity may not have been the driver's...in two situations, one in Georgia and another in Flagstaff, Arizona (in the past....dunno about now) there were situations

in which the stoplight halted traffic moving across tracks.  I got trapped both times,

at Flagstaff the driver behind me would not back up to let me back off the tracks

(luckily there were no trains coming there...but it was a three or four track main

line with heavy east/west traffic)  Road and railroad ROW engineers should be able

to figure out how to turn the stop lights red and green rapidly, out of normal sequence,  in the event of approaching trains.  I don't think the Flagstaff crossing was gated, just

signs saying don't stop on the tracks.  (I did not intend to, but when the light changed,

the car suddenly stopped in front of me...could have happened to her)

It can be done. 

 

I think it's up to the city/town/village if they WANT it to be done.

 

Rusty

YOU CANNOT FIX STUPID!! 

 

NO amount of engineering is going to stop these idiots! 

 

Anticipate the space in front of YOU so you stop SHORT of the tracks and you should NOT be "trapped"! 

 

I do it all the time in spite of occasional honking behind me! 

 

Train people like us are more informed and know these things whereas the public in general is largely IGNORANT (from the Latin, ignotus, not to know)!

I am as sympathetic as the next guy for the loss but separating the trains and roads is a very expensive solution when a cheaper one is available -- STAY OFF THE TRACKS IF A TRAIN IS COMING.

 

I don't say that to be a jerk but, purely from a public policy perspective, there are many people in our society who are in need of help. Did you know for example, that a significant percentage of the homeless are mentally ill and they are homeless because we simply don't know what to do with them?  As a voter and as a matter of policy, I would rather we do something about getting those people off the street before we spend what would likely be in the hundreds of millions of dollars to eradicate grade crossings.  Stated differently, public money should not be spent to rectify abject stupidity when there are many other higher priority needs that can be met with those same dollars.    

California has had a much worse train accident near Oxnard. It happened about 05:30 Pacific time and involved Metrolink.

This probably needs to be a new thread.

Douglas

Already posted in the very next thread below this.

Maybe the main issue is people talking on there cell phones, text messaging, or listening to their tapes, if they are not concerned about there personal safety they should think about the mental anguish that the engineer and conductor experience in a fatal accident. I worked for a commuter railroad that struck vehicles that went around down gates, people walking on tracks, etc., the air horns operated normally and were applied correctly, air brakes were applied in emergency, previous braking prior to accident operated normally, no speeding, interpreted download from event recorder, no FRA violations, but the train crews  the last people to see these people alive, these train crews suffer this anguish and must be sent for professional psychological consul, so remember them next time you walk on the tracks or go around lowered gate crossings. Also a Manager of the Mechanical Department I went to these accident scenes with shop employees and supervision to inspect damage to the lead and trailing cars, saw automobiles and stv's that were not recognizable as vehicles but parts from an automobile scrap yard.

My question to you is, why did you not wait until there was room on the other side of the tracks for your vehicle before you decided to cross the tracks?

I worked for NS as a conductor for many years.  We used to hit a lot of deer on the tracks.  I never hit a person or a car thank God.  I would feel worse about hitting a deer than hitting and killing a person for one reason.  We (humans) are supposed to be smarter.  Animals have no idea what a train is and what it will do to them.  People do. And, yet, they continue to do these stupid things.

 

Rick

I could see this happening. It has happened to me in a town next to the town I live in but the difference is the track is a seldom used freight line and there is no traffic light just a stop sign. The tracks are guarded by signals--no gates. What happens is the road crosses the tracks and then only goes about 20' before it reaches a "T" with a stop sign. If you are the third car and there is a fourth car behind you, you will be stuck on the tracks unless you stop before the tracks. It happened to me a couple of times but fortunately no trains were coming. If there was a train coming there is a enough room for me to drive over to the incoming lane or to the RH side of the road. When I got stuck there the signal lights were not on. If the lights had been on I would never have gone anywhere near the tracks.  We only get 2 slow moving freights a day. One in the afternoon and one at night.

 

I would like to know exactly what happened here before I call the lady stupid. Are there crossing gates at this crossing? Did she drive around them? If there are no gates were the signal flashers on? Did she ignore the signal flashers? I looked at the other pictures on that website but did not see any gates except those that are there for pedestrians. I tried to watch the video but it did not play properly on my computer. From what I know so far about this event I agree it was not the fault of the railroad. Depending on exactly how this crossing is laid out and what happened the lady may have just made an error in judgement and may not be a very stupid person or if she ignored gates or signals then she is a very stupid person.

Very simply:  Do not drive on to a crossing unless there is room to get completely across.

Perhaps they should make the Train Engines horn louder?
It appears they are trying to build stronger passenger cars…mentioned in this video.



K.C.

Why? Do you really think that louder horns will prevent stupid people from driving AROUND the downed gates, or driving ONTO the railroad tracks?

I don't think that a louder horn would help but I do think that a different horn would help.  We had a high school senior hit and killed by an Amtrak train just a few feet from her home because she was crossing the tracks and listening to music with ear phones.  I think that she was used to the "normal" train whistle since many trains went by her home daily.  Witnesses say that the train was blowing its horn for at least 10 seconds and that the crossing gates and bell were working when she was hit.    Her mother found her body or what was left of it before the police and emergency crews arrived.     She would have been the first person in her family to go to college - University of CA Berkley.  

 

I think that if trains had an emergency "horn" that was only sounded when there was an impending accident it may help to get a person's attention.  One option would be a very shrill horn such as those used Europe.  Another option may be a low rumble or the sound of an explosion.  I am sure audio experts could come up with something that when sounded in an emergency would be just about guaranteed to get a person's attention.  The train engineer could have a big red button to activate the emergency horn.  At all other times he would use the normal horn.

 

It doesn't appear as if any kind of horn would have prevented this accident.

 

Joe

 

Kent has it right: ANTICIPATE, and do not ever stop on the tracks! We have such a crossing here in Nashville, and if the cars in front are just over the tracks in the clear, I STOP BEFORE the gates on my side to be SAFE. Sometimes a driver to my rear will get frustrated, but that is his/her problem!

 

 

Ok, how 'bout this? You know all those camera-monitored red lights? That basically cause rear end collisions with people stopping abruptly? That don't do a thing for safety at intersections? Bet they would do a lot of good at railroad crossings.

A sign reads: "Crossing monitored 24 hours per day. You enter the crossing when traffic is backed up or gates are lowering, $250 fine!" It would be cost effective as these camera programs are "manned" by private companies - they keep half the dough, the city the other half. Presume it wouldn't take too many $250 fines before the unwary public adopts new habits!

That's already being done. Just not in enough locations.

 

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