Gary Indiana headline: "Three people are killed after the car they were in collided with a train."
"...after a car tried to beat a freight train..."
Always blame the car, which must have had a mind of its own, rather than a "driver" who was (probably) at fault.
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@Arthur P. Bloom posted:Gary Indiana headline: "Three people are killed after the car they were in collided with a train."
"...after a car tried to beat a freight train..."
Always blame the car, which must have had a mind of its own, rather than a "driver" who was (probably) at fault.
Another case of "Journalism is dead'! Just reported on WLSTV in Chicago, witness said, "The driver went around the lower gates". We are truly surrounded by idiots.
Problems of liability crop up if the reporter blames the driver before an investigation is conducted. Yes, I agree, most likely it was the driver being stupid. But until other causes are ruled out (vehicle malfunction, driver medical situation, crossing gate malfunction), it's better not to assign responsibility.
After a century of trains and cars coexisting, you might think people would have learned not to "run the gates" at RR crossings. 
Every 90 minutes in the US, a train impacts either a vehicle or a pedestrian. I don't think any amount of warning devices will fix stupidity and hubris. I am a trained Operation Lifesaver volunteer. Though Covid has prevented in person presentations in schools and the like, I am hoping to be able to make perhaps a minor dent in these statistics in the future.
One of the most common causes is impatience on a two track grade crossing where the driver goes as soon as one train passes and gets creamed by the train entering the crossing on the other track.
Paul
Good comment on two track grade crossings, one train let it be Westbound clears the crossing gate down and signals flashing, a driver gets inpatient and goes around the center barriers crossing on the grade crossing and gets a side impact from the Eastbound train. IF THE GATES ARE DOWN AND THE SIGNALS FLASHING DO NOT GO AROUND THE BARRIERS, IF EQUIPPED, AND FOUL THE TRACK SPACE, YOU MAY BE PAYING FOR YOUR IMPATIENCE AND POSSIBLY YOUR FAMILY WITH YOUR LIFE AND THEIR LIFE. I have worked for a railroad and have seen the result of this impatience believe me not a pleasant sight. In fatal grade crossing accidents, either by a person going around lowered gates or barriers, if installed, or by a person committing suicide the engineer and conductor(if present in the cab) are witnessing a person(s) being killed, they are also victims in these situations.
@West Side Joe posted:Problems of liability crop up if the reporter blames the driver before an investigation is conducted.
According to this evenings WLSTV news reports, the reporter on the scene only quoted the witness (more than one) that stated, "The driver drove around the lowered gates.".
Yes, I agree, most likely it was the driver being stupid.
Ya think?????
But until other causes are ruled out (vehicle malfunction, driver medical situation, crossing gate malfunction), it's better not to assign responsibility.
So,,,,,,,,,,you are saying that the many witnesses did NOT actually see what they saw?????
There's probably a very short list of things that could make this the train engineer's fault. However, unless the report is refuted, "driving around the lowered gates", I really doubt it's the RR or engineer's fault. 
@Railrunnin posted:One of the most common causes is impatience on a two track grade crossing where the driver goes as soon as one train passes and gets creamed by the train entering the crossing on the other track.
Paul
Even those who should know better. Horn blowing and all.
WOW, that's stupid squared!
Don't worry, the siren and flashing lights will slow the train down. Emergency vehicles have the right of way.
I've been told by people that should know that the train wins all ties at crossings! 
Yesterday’s south bound Vermonter hit a car in South Royalton, VT. (Fatally) Just a cross buck at the grade crossing. Can’t speak to the visibility… but those aren’t moose tracks.
Jon 
@RickO posted:Even those who should know better. Horn blowing and all.
What a shame, I hope the officer wasn't killed.
@Allegheny posted:What a shame, I hope the officer wasn't killed.
Well, he at least got a few bruises! 
It didn't look like it crushed the cab, so hopefully he survived and learned a valuable lesson.
Yeah, that bad train ran off the tracks and flattened the car *sigh*. Kind of like the person arrested for assault saying "I put my fist out and he ran into it".
There have been times when I got a little scared with grade crossings, where a road is backed up , you have space on the other side beyond the grade crossing and then a car or two hole shot and there is no room and you are kind of hung on the grade crossing . Had that happen the other week, fortunately found room to move forward.
@John Ochab posted:Good comment on two track grade crossings, one train let it be Westbound clears the crossing gate down and signals flashing, a driver gets inpatient and goes around the center barriers crossing on the grade crossing and gets a side impact from the Eastbound train.
That's how some friends of my parents died, except it was on BNSF's 3-track racetrack. The wake was closed casket.
Rusty
@Hot Water posted:
Hot Water, my comment was based on the original post. You have added new information, which would have changed the nature of my response. This is why it's better to wait until all the facts are in before assigning blame.
"After a century of trains and cars coexisting, you might think people would have learned not to 'run the gates' at RR crossings."
Yeah, and after -- oh, I don't know -- maybe 100+ years of highway deaths and destruction caused by alcohol and the constant reminders not to drink and drive, people keep doing it. And yesterday, in a town nearby, 5 people died in a fire in a multi-family house without smoke detectors, and a guy in my town, aged 68, working by himself on a roof, fell to his death. No amount of warnings, it seems, will get people to stop being self-destructive.
Latest report on Chicago's WLSTV this evening, is concentrating on "The freight train struck the car and killed all three occupants.". Absolutely no mention of the witnesses that say she drove around the lowered gates!
Amazing how that darned freight train swerved, struck the car, and then returned to the rails. Journalism is truly dead.
@Hot Water posted:…Journalism is truly dead.
I am so tired of hearing people bleating "journalism is dead" every time they find a news story not to their liking.
Maybe instead of blaming journalism, you should find a more reliable source of news? In about two seconds of search you can find plenty of stories quoting witnesses and the police about how the driver was to blame, e.g., here.
Do you scream "cooking is dead" if you happen to have a bad meal at a restaurant from time to time?
@Professor Chaos posted:I am so tired of hearing people bleating "journalism is dead" every time they find a news story not to their liking.
Maybe instead of blaming journalism, you should find a more reliable source of news? In about two seconds of search you can find plenty of stories quoting witnesses and the police about how the driver was to blame, e.g., here.
Do you scream "cooking is dead" if you happen to have a bad meal at a restaurant from time to time?
All well and good, except I prefer to sit with my wife, with a glass of Bourbon, and watch the local news on TV, such as it is. Just my opinion but, there is just as much "crap" on the internet that is classified as "news" too.
@Hot Water posted:All well and good, except I prefer to sit with my wife, with a glass of Bourbon, and watch the local news on TV, such as it is. Just my opinion but, there is just as much "crap" on the internet that is classified as "news" too.
Fair enough, but then it's really "local TV news" is dead?
Not sure if I should share this, kind of off topic. Two months ago my gf & I were talking about taking the train to Chicago so we stopped by the Lake Villa train station about 9 am on a Tuesday to check the schedule. The last train to Chicago was at 7 am or so. As we walked back to our car there was a guy standing by the tracks and I immediately thought, why is he standing there, there are no more trains today going that way, so I asked him, are you waiting for a train. He gave me this weird smile and took a step toward me mumbling something. I could tell something was off so I walked away, and I remember as I got in the car saying, I’m glad that exchange was short.
Later I’m coming home and there are a bunch of flashing lights around the station. Street closed off. The dude walked in front of a train a short time after we saw him and killed himself. Talk about creepy. I don’t think there was anything I could have done but it does make you think.
Thats a sad story, feel sorry for the guy who felt life wasn't worth living anymore, ( he might of been on drugs from the description of events there). But I feel even more sympathy for the train crew that has to deal with that kinda thing, that's gotta be harsh on them.
@Professor Chaos posted:I am so tired of hearing people bleating "journalism is dead" every time they find a news story not to their liking.
When a “journalist” writes a story that blames the train for a grade crossing crossing accident when there are witnesses to the fact that the driver drove around the gates, what else can anyone assume but that the “journalist” is dead from the neck up. The entire premise is ridiculous.
I stand by my statement, and my basis for that statement goes a lot farther than just this one, local story.
@Rich Melvin posted:I stand by my statement, and my basis for that statement goes a lot farther than just this one, local story.
You just said a mouthful, and I'll leave it at that! I'm still amazed that the cop drove out in front of the train, speaking of brain dead!
Yesterday 8:48 AM
Jon
Wonder how effective these once were?...If you are of the age to remember them, that is!
Of course, nowadays you'd have to post these in multiple languages to be wholly effective.
I miss seeing these when travelling. You?
At the risk of being branded an "Old Fart" I will say that I, too, fondly recall those "Burma-Shave" signs along the highway. Some of them were quite funny!
They would be useless now. Young drivers today are mostly looking down at their phones, not looking out the window at road signs. Just watch what happens at any Interstate exit ramp these days.
I really enjoyed that one also, Rich.... I'm another "old fart" who remembers those signs
on US Rt.11 before there was I 81.
A lot of the Burma Shave signs showed up out west on seemingly deserted highways. 
I remember seeing them in Wyoming, the place my wife claims "nobody lives here".
If the OP's description of the car/train accident is an argument for journalism being dead then it would appear journalism died almost 100 years ago...the simple fact remains that descriptions of auto/train accidents haven't changed much over time.
Wilson Daily Times, 11 June 1926
Headline: Third Fatality Result Accident
“…died at eleven o’clock last night in the Atlantic Coast Line railroad hospital at Rocky Mount, from injuries sustained early Monday morning at Dunn when the automobile in which she was riding collided with Coast Line train No. 76.”
Mt. Pleasant Daily Times – 6 October 1930
Headline: Two Killed in Train-Auto Crash
”Two men are dead, two others are believed dying and a fifth is suffering from minor injuries today…The five men, all of whom lived in or near Shepherd, were riding in a sedan when it ploughed into a fog-obscured southbound Ann Arbor freight train….”
The Charleston Daily Mail West Virginia May 17, 1936
Headline: Death for Seven is Climax of Wedding
“Youngstown, O., May 16 (UP) - Seven members of a wedding party were killed, four of them instantly, today when their car crashed into the side of a freight train at West Austintown near here…Witnesses said their car was traveling about 50 miles an hour when it hit the train.”
The Daily Times New Philadelphia Ohio July 28, 1941
Headline: Eight Killed in Auto, Train Crash
(By International News Service)
“An auto-train crash near Dayton …claimed eight lives …The train, the second section of a St. Louis to New York flyer, carried the wreckage 500 feet down the track. A witness said the auto paused momentarily as it approached the crossing, then drove on the tracks directly in front of the locomotive.”
Daily Reporter Dover Ohio April 18, 1956
Headline: 3 Sportsmen Killed in Car.
“Tiffin, Ohio (AP) - Three Lorain sportsmen, en route to a pigeon shoot in Kentucky, were killed today when their car hit an express train at nearby Attica Junction.”
Your examples don't support your claim. Each of them seems to correctly described the auto crashing into the train, which occurs in about 25% of all grade-crossing accidents.
Yep, like I said: "stupid cars." According to these reports, no mention is made of the drivers' having done anything wrong. I know it's a common semantic usage, but it's still wrong, and avoids blaming the drivers. But why beat this to death? Journalists' misuse of the English language is a common source of humor at my house and among my friends. The worst, of course, are the sports announcers (with the exception of Michael Kay and a few others) who mangle the language unmercifully with their malapropisms.
I'm sorry - where in any of the items cited did the text say the driver was responsible? In every case it was the car that did the deed.
The original post made the following cite "after a car tried to beat a freight train"
1926 "when the automobile in which she was riding collided with Coast Line train No. 76"
1930 "a sedan when it ploughed into a fog-obscured southbound Ann Arbor freight train"
1936 " their car was traveling about 50 miles an hour when it hit the train"
1941 "the auto paused momentarily as it approached the crossing, then drove on the tracks directly in front of the locomotive"
1956 "when their car hit an express train at nearby Attica Junction"
I'm particularly fond of the homicidal/suicidal 1941 car - imagine - it paused momentarily and then decided to place itself and its passengers directly in front of an oncoming train - it makes Christine look like a comedy car.
It's implied their was a driver just like it's implied their was an engineer operating the train.
Would it make you feel better if the headline read, "Driver Crosses Path of Engineer in Car-Train Collision"?
@catnap posted:It's implied their was a driver just like it's implied their was an engineer operating the train.
Would it make you feel better if the headline read, "Driver Crosses Path of Engineer in Car-Train Collision"?
Indeed. The rhetorical device used is called metonymy, and it substitutes one associated term for another. An example is referring to the president as the White House, as in: The White House announced new measures it will take to support [insert waste of money here]. No one envisions the building talking just as no one envisions the car operating on its own (unless its name is Christine). The absolutely correct effect of the announcements quoted is to assign responsibility to the car driver, NOT to the train. None of those examples supports a claim of poor journalism historically.
WOW, I took a wrong turn and ended up in English 101!
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