Hats off to those who design the locomotive cabs to protect the crew. They walked away with only minor injuries:
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Wow. That could have ended a lot worse.
That was incredible, as well as horrifying.......watching a train crash in real time!!!
Glad there were no fatalities.......the engineer and fireman in the cab must have thought it was going to be curtains for them!!!
Peter.....Buco Australia
@Buco posted:That was incredible, as well as horrifying.......watching a train crash in real time!!!
Glad there were no fatalities......
Yes.
.the engineer and fireman in the cab must have thought it was going to be curtains for them!!!
That would be the Engineer and Conductor. There haven't been Firemen in many, MANY decades on the U.S. railroads.
Peter.....Buco Australia
I’ll spare you the local news report, totally clueless as always from the media.
Wow, that's crazy!
Good thing that wasn't a gas truck. That very thing happened in South Florida in the 90's, Many people died when gasoline was sprayed over awaiting cars when the tanker burst. I used to work a mile from that wreck and heard the explosion.
Yes, indeed... Modern locomotive cabs are well designed for protection of the employees inside.
Train/auto collisions at road crossings are an occupational hazard for Engineers and Trainmen. Some work 40 years without being involved in one. Others experience several. We should all be thankful that there are not more of them. And the public near the collision is also subject to becoming involved, as superwarp1 pointed out.
****. I’m so glad the NS crew only had minor injuries. The lead engine pushed a portion of the beam all the way down the tracks. They are lucky that didn’t fly up and hit the cab.
Why on earth would the truck driver block the tracks waiting for a red light? Some drivers have no clue.
@ed davis posted:****. I’m so glad the NS crew only had minor injuries. The lead engine pushed a portion of the beam all the way down the tracks. They are lucky that didn’t fly up and hit the cab.
Why on earth would the truck driver block the tracks waiting for a red light? Some drivers have no clue.
I had the same question. Its hardly the first time this kind of thing has happened, either. There was a somewhat similar accident in my hometown earlier in the year where a truck carrying lumber stopped over the tracks waiting for a light.
Wild stuff! It looks like something a kid cooks up with their toy trains!
The Norfolk Southern could buy the entire trucking company and retrain everybody.
Andrew
The track has already been repaired and the line is back up and running. That was quick.
As a truck driver with a clean CDL record, I am embarrassed by some drivers I see. The industry needs more drivers but not all should be behind the wheel. I advise my wife to give a wide berth to tractor/trailers and I try to help those drivers that I see in " a pickle", everyone was a novice at some point.
(off the road Thurs/Fri due to blizzard conditions here = more train time !)
Rich in SD
@trestleking posted:I advise my wife to give a wide berth to tractor/trailers and I try to help those drivers that I see in " a pickle", everyone was a novice at some point.
I always give those guys lots of space to make their right hand turns and maneuver in general. In your opinion, what might have happened here? I haven't read anything on what caused the driver to cross the tracks?
Here is a follow up video about the driver of the truck and the cleanup.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uv9VO5aIfMM
Hope to see you out rail-fanning; Gary 🚂
@BillYo414 posted:I always give those guys lots of space to make their right hand turns and maneuver in general. In your opinion, what might have happened here? I haven't read anything on what caused the driver to cross the tracks?
Bill, he’s an oversized load & “should” have had a pilot vehicle ahead of him - to keep him out of trouble. Some pilot vehicle drivers are ex-CDL holders who can’t pass the annual physical anymore, so they have a “clue” about the move. Ultimately the truck driver’s responsible.
The "E/P" (escort/pilot vehicle) requirement varies from state-to-state. There are a few states that do not require an escort for oversized loads. The states that do require them, and license people to perform that task, designate the pilot drivers as VERY limited peace officers, who are expected and allowed to run ahead of the transport vehicle and clear the way so that the vehicle does not encounter such a conflict as shown in the video. Their tasks may include stopping and redirecting traffic and waving the transporter through otherwise restricting signals and signs.
Even without all that information, the basic rule of driving any vehicle is "don't enter an intersection (or cross a RR track) that you can't get out of without stopping."
In this incident, there was obviously not enough planning to get the job done safely. Knowlege of the railroad schedule, notification of the transporter's intention to cross the tracks at that time, notifying local law enforcement of the route, pilot vehicles running ahead to clear the way, etc. You may say "that's a lot of planning just to move a truck" but look at the results in this case. It's hard to believe that the driver was trying to transport that 126' long load all by himself. Was there anyone helping?
Oversize Load Pilot Cars: A Safeguard for Freight Transport (usatruckloadshipping.com)
@trestleking I appreciate the response. I never knew how it worked with escort vehicles and responsibility.
NS has had a rough 10 days! This accident / derailment and then the one down in AL where a freak accident killed a conductor trainee!
Just a little tidbit I read:
There was a Pilot Car, and follow Car. The truck driver himself didn't stop on the track for a red light.If you look VERY closely, the truck and it's load was moving, albeit VERY slowly.
They are saying very early witness reports have the pilot car clear the grade crossing and the truck began moving, then the pilot car basically stopped which caused the truck to slow to a crawl to not hit the pilot car, with the concrete beam dead center over the tracks.
The the crossing signals and arms activated
The weight of the beam, and having lost momentum, meant he couldn't even just floor it and push the pilot car out of the way in time.
This is not the first beam that has traveled this route for the big highway expansion project going on.
All previous were without incident.
No one knows, or has said publicly, why the pilot car stopped when and where it did after following procedure up to that point.
