Railroad safety

Darwin at work: the parents....    

You did the right thing. Tragically Sunday about one hour north of here, a 30-year-old and a six-year-old were fishing on small Trestle. They were struck and killed by an Amtrak train coming south from Montreal, the engineer of the Amtrak train was unaware that he had hit them until notified when he stopped at Penn Station.

In December, the CP Rail Santa Train came and stopped at an Amtrak station.  After the train left, kids were walking the tracks, while their parents were busy playing on their phones.  We yelled at them to get off the tracks.  People are ignorant, and unfortunately, reproduce.

Very good advice to them.  Reminds me of a scene from one of my favorite movies  October Sky  The boys are "borrowing" some rails on an abandoned spur

 

You just can't fix stupid. At least you tried. Good for you.

There are a lot of dumb people out there who walk around listening to their ipods and don't know what is happening around them.  How stupid can you get.  

You did the right thing. I'd have done the same.

- Greg

After nearly 2 century's of railroading across the country, you would think people would "get it" by now. But I always shake my head ruefully that folks *STILL* walk between the rails, try to 'beat" the train across well guarded crossings, and generally have no respect for rail traffic. Many times, unfortunately, ending up with tragic results.

I teach CSX and NS Roadway Worker Safety classes to our employees and contractors.  You should see the blank looks I sometimes get when making my presentation.

 

on Bring Your child to Work days, I show videos of trains crashing into trucks.  They ask for that every year.  Then I show them the soda can crash test.  You show them a soda can and tell them it is them before a train hits them.  Then stomp on the can and show them that it is them after the train hits them.  Their parents tell me they always remember my presentations.  Scared Straight.

About 30 years ago while they were upgrading the North East Corridor they parked the cement tie train on an old rail siding where I work.  One of the cars broke loose and rolled about two miles on track that hadn't  seen a train in over forty years.  It's a good thing it happened on a weekend and not during the work day.  The old loading dock track was used a a parking lot and the train smashed a dumpster flat.

You were exactly right, railroad tracks are not a playground. There have been numerous injuries and fatalities in rail yards and on mainline tracks to railroad employees, I worked in shop management for a commuter railroad, all employees management, shop and terminal  were forbidden to walk inside the gauge of the track by company regulations. Employees who violated these regulations were subject to disciplinary action. The FRA under GCOR addresses many track practices or prohibitions for railroad employees. Failure to practice safe practices around railroad tracks, keeping off tracks and being observant for an approaching train or playing around a block of cars on a siding(grade or not) can cost you your life or serious injury, there has been numerous fatalities and close calls with people using headphones, talking on cell phones or text messaging, on railroad tracks.

We are undoubtedly more aware of the danger of trains that the general public, but even so it's hard to understand how some people can be so clueless.

 

Art 

What disappoints me is the Parents were/are to dumb to know you were concerned about them, and their Children… A kind gesture if you ask me. 

You’re just lucky you didn’t leave your Brunch with a couple Pop Knots…on your head!!
How big a boy are you?  Can you Handle yourself? 
If not, and this lesson goes for Everyone …..Tell the Proper Authorities !
You never know who might not like your advice, and might want to get side-ways with you! 
That could ruin a perfectly good Sunday Brunch…


Kids with Adult Supervision??



K.C.

quote:

You’re just lucky you didn’t leave your Brunch with a couple Pop Knots…on your head!!
How big a boy are you?  Can you Handle yourself? 
If not, and this lesson goes for Everyone …..Tell the Proper Authorities !
You never know who might not like your advice, and might want to get side-ways with you! 
That could ruin a perfectly good Sunday Brunch…

 

You are 100 percent correct.

I had a bad experience in a similar vein.

One time, when I was leaving a nature preserve, I asked a woman to watch her small kids, who were running around in the parking lot, because I was concerned about them ending up in the blind spot behind my car, and being hit. You'd have thought I called her an unfit mother. No physical violence, but lots of verbal abuse. Her male companion, who seems to understand my intent, tried to calm her down.

This is a followup to my previous response, since I was the manager of the railcar repair shop I have seen the effect of effect of a six car MU electric passenger train striking both a SUV and passenger cars whose drivers went around lowered crossing gates. The train crews, primarily the engineer and conductor, were not responsible for these fatal accidents the air horn was blown, dumped the air brakes in emergency upon seeing the vehicle and upon reviewing the event recorder data with the Transportation Department. Our commuter cars weighed between 130,000 and 160,000 lbs when loaded with riders and coupling these with track speed the impact momentum is high. Now look at a freight train, the maximum gross rail load per railcar today is 263,000 lbs with many at 268,000 lbs, if you have a unit coal train consisting of 120 loaded coal cars at loaded weight plus the weight of the locomotives and the operating track speed the impact forces are many times that of a six car commuter train.

Parents are responsible for the safety of their children, allowing they to play on or near railroad tracks, whether active or abandoned, is a grave mistake. The argument to this may be, if abandoned so what, yes abandoned tracks are not used but given a Child's mental awareness and lack of concentration when playing, they can play on a track that is active with tragic consequences. Regardless of what the parents think of my comments, which are true, the important issue is the safety of our children. Also, train crews involved in these fatal accidents, are sent for mental counseling just as many vets are for post traumatic stress issues. Remember the engineer always and may times the conductor see the impact, I have heard of engineers disqualifying themselves because of the mental effects of these collisions even though they after reviewing all facts and the event recorder data were exonerated from any fault.

In summary, parents and people in general can prevent deaths and serious injuries by staying off railroad tracks, obey crossing gates and flashing railroad signals and when crossing at railroad track(s) look both track direction on each track for an approaching train.