Another car on the tracks video. Looks like they just got confused as to where their turn was or just not paying attention.
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Saw that on VRF the other day. Gotta be an absolutely helpless feeling to watch a train bear down on your car. At least no one was hurt.
There was another one in Chehallis Wa over the weekend too.
@RSJB18 posted:Saw that on VRF the other day. Gotta be an absolutely helpless feeling to watch a train bear down on your car. At least no one was hurt.
There was another one in Chehallis Wa over the weekend too.
Think about how the engineer feels as he’s bearing down on people or a vehicle and has no way to change the outcome.
If you watch enough of Virtual Rail Fan you see this kind of accident almost weekly. I have no idea where these folks think they are going but fortunately most make it out alive. Their vehicles usually fair worse either by train or wrecker.
I'd say who in their right mind would end up driving onto the RR tracks, but then again a number of years ago i almost drove into Lake Ontario via a street that turned into a boat ramp (Canadian side) due to poor night lighting, poor signage and my lack of knowledge of the area...and i was perfectly sober!
Unfortunately stuff happens to each of us at some time or another. The individual driving the car realized their error once the front end went onto the tracks. But unfortunately they could not back out of the situation even with someone pushing.
And wouldn't you know it a train shows up two minutes later! It could be that that line see's action only a few times out of the day, and if the the driver had just gotten stuck four minutes later he'd would have had plenty of time to have the wrecker pull him out.
C'est la vie
This idea might be cost-prohibitive and not feasible but at some locations like this where crossing gates exist, could the railroad install an emergency phone so that when people realize there is trouble they could contact someone at the railroad directly to get the train stopped and dispatch the police? I know some crossings have the emergency contact information posted but many do not.
@H1000 posted:This idea might be cost-prohibitive and not feasible but at some locations like this where crossing gates exist, could the railroad install an emergency phone so that when people realize there is trouble they could contact someone at the railroad directly to get the train stopped and dispatch the police? I know some crossings have the emergency contact information posted but many do not.
Pretty sure EVERY mechanized/protected street crossing in the U.S. has that emergency phone number posted on the "control box".
I've seen a few that don't and some that do but haven't been maintained in years which are now unreadable. I'm not saying this should be done everywhere, but in locations that are accident-prone so much that public webcams are put in, this might prevent many of these incidents.
Another thought…Why not pave a little further down the right-of-way so cars don’t drop off and immediately get hung up on the rails. Once people see the rails through their windshield they usually know they’ve made a mistake, but for most passenger cars once a wheel or two drops off they high-center and can’t back up.
This video reminded me of how long it takes a freight train to stop, even when it isn't moving terribly fast.
I looked at this video again trying to figure out why the driver turned onto the tracks. If you look closely he had his right turn signal on. To me that indicates he felt he needed to turn right there. My gut feeling is he was following GPS directions on his phone and he thought he was at the street intersection where he supposed to turn onto.
Sometimes when you look at those screens (without any audio), the map looks as though you are at the desired drive apron or intersection when you really are not. It can be very deceiving and you make the mistake of turning a hair too soon especially driving in an unfamiliar area.
An added issue is he was driving at night and didn't realize he was turning onto a set of tracks vs. a dark street until it was too late.
The good thing was, he was able to get out of the car in a timely manner before the freight train relocated his car.
@Allegheny posted:My gut feeling is he was following GPS directions on his phone and he thought he was at the street intersection where he supposed to turn onto.
This is exactly what happened. His GPS was telling him to turn right/west on to Railroad St. from NY 250 south.
He was unfamiliar with the area, going to visit a prospective employer.
Unfortunately, trying to protect people from themselves results in more and more laws (and more and more money to incorporate those laws)... and you still can't protect them.
Stupid people will still find ways to do stupid things.
Life is tough and it comes at you fast, but it's a whole lot tougher when one is stupid.
Thankfully, this person survived the experience unscathed. Hopefully, that one individual learned that Siri's instructions shouldn't always be followed.
Andre
@laming posted:Siri's instructions shouldn't always be followed...
Siri wasn't wrong, he just turned too soon. Railroad St is just past the third set of tracks(the West Shore tracks) on his right. He turned onto the CSX track1 ROW.
Personal Responsibility. You can certainly use the various apps for directions but it also takes you to pay attention. The crossing gates and lights, even though not active should be a clue. Most apps also indicate when a RR Crossing is coming up.
@ADCX Rob posted:Siri wasn't wrong, he just turned too soon...
Yep. head pointed at the phone, not at the road 
