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Two guys in the cab and a clear view up the tracks, I'd say they did the right thing.
@Scotie posted:Two guys in the cab and a clear view up the tracks, I'd say they did the right thing.
agreed.
Yep- he stopped they both looked and he went. I'm sure they have policies for just these situations too.
The truck behind them wisely waited. 
That's 15 minutes from where I live. They did the right thing.
That was a perfectly executed emergency crossing of an active railroad track.
The fire engine crew did the right thing.
As a Firefighter, Yes, proper procedure was followed. Two firefighters in cab - both confirm Locomotive position after stopping - Procedure was followed! As for the ambulance and ladder truck it's kinda hard to go through a train and still be able to get to the fire in one piece.
glad we all agree.....
Also as a Firefighter/ Paramedic with over 25 years in the service I think it was a tough call to make. They stopped the Engine looked and made a split second risk/ benefit assessment.
This is stuff that cannot be taught in a book. It is also easy to be a Monday morning quarterback. We are only seeing a video perspective not what the driver and officer seen in real time. Again these are the split second decisions made all the time in this profession.
As long as members followed the department’s protocols and local laws if any. I don’t think it was a right or wrong, just a very tough call that had to be made.
As the others have said, driver stopped, assessed the risk and proceeded. His risk assessment most likely considered his orders from Incident Command on the fire scene.
They did the right thing. The basic rule I was taught when I took a course designed for driving first response vehicles many years ago was that when it came to train crossings and other potentially hazardous situations, that if you could identify the hazard and know enough to make an informed decision, it was okay to proceed. They guys in the firetruck could see the oncoming track, could see how far the train was from them and how fast it was going (they stopped to allow observation). If the truck had just raced across the track it would be stupid, but they didn't. In the rig of an ambulance, you might not have the same view the rig would, so in that case I would have waited.
The other factor here I would take into consideration is what the train crossing is (and this is not a criticism of what the firetruck did, not at all). If this is a freight crossing where it is like my local shortline, where they are moving relatively short trains and the crossing will be cleared pretty quickly, I would lean towards waiting (or in this case, a tourist railroad pulling a string of maybe half dozen cars). If this was a CSX mainline where trains run a mile long, it would make me lean towards jumping it if I felt it was safe to do so. As others point out, no two situations are the same. On an ambulance, if the call was a cardiac arrest where the person wasn't breathing, the urgency would be different than let's say someone who had fallen and couldn't put weight on their leg, one is more time sensitive than the other (assuming you know the details,lot of times you don't).
As Big Al , a member of another rescue squad said, "Ya don't want to be part of the story" (well, that is the clean version of what he said...
I just had brunch at that train station the Sunday before this happened. In my opinion and from prior Emergency Vehicle Operations training, I believe they made the right decision. I have been reading the feedback on Facebook and it’s heavily leaning in the other direction. Call came in as possible entrapment too.
When I watched it, I thought, what if the throttle linkage clip came off when he accelerated? Guess I drove too many old trucks. LOL
For the truck and the ambulance that got there after the train, it was a good thing to see a steam-powered, long passenger train moving at a good clip so that the crossing was blocked for only a short time. Actually great to see a long passenger train powered by steam with no diesel assist moving at that speed under any circumstances. And the combination of the steam locomotive's whistle with the sirens is an awesome combination of sounds.
