CARS RUNNING CROSSINGS-AND GETTING CAUGHT!!!

[Anonymous]

On the new EMD SD70ACe there are still shot video camers mounted in the nose or on the cab facing forward that activate when ever the horn is blown. Also there is a microphone that pics up to see if there is actually noise coming from the horn. This information is loaded into the event recorder. So if there is an accident then there is visual proof of the car running the gates and that the horn was being blown.

[Anonymous]

my aunt was riding the bus one time and the bus stopped at a crossing a car was on the other side when the train went by the car was gone. The car was then spotted some 300 yds away with the driver dead and the car crumpled

DRew

[bikerraypa]

QUOTE: Now, if hitting a car cannot stop a train, and hitting a cow cannot stop a train, what CAN stop a train? he asked.

Two pages later we found the answer: hitting another train will stop a train

Indeed, often shockingly so. Branchton, PA, January '82 on the Bessemer....










If a locomotive comes out of a fight with another locomotive looking like that, imagine what your Honda Civic would look like.

Ray out

[rrinker]

And even in the middle of winter - I roll down the windows so I can HEAR the train go by!

--Randy

[canazar]

Yeah, that is one of the first signs you are a railfan, or train nut , whatever...

It is the middle of rush hour, you have been stuck in traffic for the last 50 minutes. Its Friday, long week, your tired, cranky and your out of patience.... Then, you see the RR crossing lights go off.... and you think OH GOODIE!!

[davekelly]

There's one big advantage of being a train nut. I love having to wait at crossings!

[BRJN]

QUOTE: Originally posted by HighIron2003ar

What to do with the Revenue generated from tickets that are issued?
Half to the nearest courthouse, half to the railroad?

Every year, start a fund of cash with gate-crashing ticket money. The railroad gets as much money as it needs to replace / repair damaged equipment from collisions. Leftover at end of year goes to the government. Maybe government should be required to give mandatory classes on "How to Drive Around Railroads", which make it very plain that all such accidents are the auto driver's fault.

Come to think of it, with this kind of information at hand, the RR could initiate a bunch of trespassing lawsuits, since you were not supposed to be on railroad property (between the gates) at the time anyway.

[Anonymous]

Railroad Crossing Cameras? Automatic cameras?

Hmmmm...... You would need loops into the roadbed to detect cars when gates are down.

Worth considering.

What to do with the Revenue generated from tickets that are issued?

Half to the nearest courthouse, half to the railroad?

[underworld]

I don't know about where you are from but in NW Ohio we have lots of traffic light cameras. With the advancements in electronics and the availablity of cheap, compact, good quality video cameras....I don't know why the railroads don't have these. At least I have never heard of them.

underworld

Easter Easter Easter Easter Easter!!!!!

[:D][:D][:D][:D][:D]

[Anonymous]

I used to be very worried along the Red River as livestock had a dark color which at night blended perfectly into the roadway.

Regarding trains, I have taken the attitude of "look, Listen and Live." My own spouse once confessed to me for running gates I chewed her out saying I dont want to have to use a garden hose to wash what was left of her out of the car. Not for the sake of saving a few extra seconds while trying to get somewhere quickly.

As far I know she never ran them again. There are plenty of gate runners here also. It saddens me that people feel that life is so stressful that they cannot just sit a few seconds and add years to life.

I cannot imagine what those train crews must endure as they try to sleep at night.

[BRJN]

The scene: a two-lane road with a RR crossing, morning rush hour, half-block from a traffic light.

A repair crew was re-paving one approach to the crossing. The crossing itself was still intact and so was the far side. The repair crew was also directing traffic in the single remaining lane. I came up, several vehicles behind a cement truck.

As the cement truck was flagged through the crossing, the lights came on and bells and all the rest of it. The driver gunned his engine (big puff of smoke visible) and charged straight ahead ... into the pivot end of the opposite gate. He took the gate off and swerved back to his own side of the road.

I was wondering why he didn't gun the engine, swerve, then pass around the other end of the gate.

After he got clear, the train came through, full brakes because they had to report the accident. It took a good two dozen car-lengths to come to a stop and then the train just sat there. I had to go back and around to find a way to work that day. <sigh>

No injuries or damage to report (fortunately), other than the gate needing to be put back on. The road crew must have helped, because when I came back home the gate was fixed but no road work had been accomplished.

[BRJN]

I found a book titled Nickle Plate Road Publicity Photos from about 1950. Several pictures I used as an instructive tutorial for my son.

The first was a nose-on photo of a PA-1 with blood splattered all over the front and the 'skirt' by the wheels missing. The locomotive had hit a cow.

Hitting a cow kills a car. So the locomotive is more powerful than the car.

The next photo was a three-quarters view of the same locomotive, sitting near a repair building. The only damage was on the nose; the sides and underneath and back were untouched. The point to be made was that the locomotive had driven itself to the repair shop. It was not badly hurt at all.

Now, if hitting a car cannot stop a train, and hitting a cow cannot stop a train, what CAN stop a train? he asked.

Two pages later we found the answer: hitting another train will stop a train. Photo of a pile of wreckage (smashed and twisted on one end, the other looked a little like a GP) that had obviously been on fire. Another big twisted piece of metal was captioned as the other locomotive, smashed-in and fallen off the tracks and lying on its side. Also burnt. The GP's smashed end was sitting on the middle of the other locomotive.

Lesson: The force which will stop a train is too much for the human body - including yours - to withstand.

[johncolley]

I think of it as a form of population control to weed out stupidity. The sad thing is that often there are innocent people hurt or killed because of the driver. A 5-10,000 lb vehicle is no match for a 100,000 lb plus locomotive with a train behind it at track speed. Although because trailer lengths have grown over the years there are a lot of instances where there is not enough room between the crossing and a stopsign. These design flaws should be corrected by the governing authorities instead of ignored.

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by gsetter

I saw a school bus go around a gate in Romulus. Luckly nothing happened. I wish I was close enough to get the bus number. I would have ratted on the driver.
A friend of mine says she see cars and busses run the gates every day behind her work place.

In 1972 i saw the aftermath of a school bus hit by a train in Congers NY when its driver ran a stop sign at an otherwise unguarded crossing. 4 children died and scores of others injured. I can't think of a harsh enough punishment for a school bus driver that goes around a railroad crossing gate, deliberately putting the lives of his or her young passengers in peril. Stupidity is no excuse. That driver should grow old or die in prison.

Wayne

[rrinker]

QUOTE: Originally posted by bwilcox

Doesn't get any more dramatic than this one:

http://wcco.com/water/watercooler_story_048081949.html

Any other topic on the news and they'd be sure to throw in their opinions - the truck RAN THE CROSSING GATES plain and simple. There is nothing defective with that traffic light. Then he commits a SECOND error and just STOPS on the tracks. At that point, he should have just run the red light and tried to get clear, although it didn't look like he would have made it anyway.
Like that school bus accident in Illinois. The bus driver did NOT make sure she could clear the tracks and pulled ahead, but they blame it all on the traffic light and, even worse, the train. If I was there and a bunch of kids started screamign that the train was coming, that's when you just bump into the car in front. To just sit there like you are helpless is insane. Hmm, damage to a car or two in front of me, or people get killed... tough choice NOT.
There was a crossing safety video we had at the RR club I used to belong to, a lot of those "caught on camera" things. One showed a semi stuck on the tracks getting broadsided by a train, by the time they got the train stopped they had pushed the truck sideways (amazingly, it didn't roll over), snapping off poles and other lineside items all the way. Another one is a police video where they staked out a crossing where people where known to run the gates. The first car caught was - A RAILROAD EMPLOYEE!
And then there was the truckload of vintage Porsche 356's that got flattened. It was one of those glorified pickup trucks used as the tractor hauling a small auto trailer, the driver went the wrong way and got high centered over the tracks, but apparently just took off rather than get help. There was quite a bit of time before a train came along where someone could have towed the stuck rig off the tracks, or called the railroad, or something.

--Randy

[Anonymous]

I saw a school bus go around a gate in Romulus. Luckly nothing happened. I wish I was close enough to get the bus number. I would have ratted on the driver.
A friend of mine says she see cars and busses run the gates every day behind her work place.

[leighant]

I disagree with part of bnsf97's statement that (quote)"OH MAN IT WAS BAD LUCK FOR THAT GUY!!!! " when a motorist got caught by the law after cutting the crossing gates and just getting missed by UP train. That's not particularly bad luck. What would be bad luck is getting hit by train.

Here in Texas, there's a poster that says if you are driving while intoxicated, you can go to jail, be fined $$$$, lose your license, lose your car etc. IF you are lucky. That is better luck than the alternative pictured with the crumpled up car.

[jrbarney]

Ben,
It's been proven experimentally that printing in all capital letters is both harder and slower to read than mixed case. On the Internet, printing in all capital letters is considered shouting by some folks. Please consider this as
constructive criticism, and meant in a friendly way. [:)]
Bob
NMRA Life 0543

[Anonymous]

Doesn't get any more dramatic than this one:

http://wcco.com/water/watercooler_story_048081949.html

[Anonymous]

I WAS AT CAJON YESTERDAY AND AS SOON AS THE LIGHTS FLASHED THIS BLUE CAR CAME SPEEDING DOWN AND CROSSED RIGHT UNDER THE CROSSINGS ALMOST HITTING THEM AND THE UNION PACIFIC NORTHBOUND WITH AN SD70M ON POINT. AND GUESS WHO WAS ON THE OTHERSIDE OF THE GRADE WHO JUST PULLED UP....A CHP OFFICER!!!!!!!!! OH MAN IT WAS BAD LUCK FOR THAT GUY!!!! HE PUT ON HIS LIGHTS AND GOT HIM BEFORE HE COULD GO ANY FURTHER. IT JUST GOES TO SHOW...RAIL SAFTEY IS IMPORTANT. ANY OTHERS U GUYS WOULD LIKE TO SHARE OF PEOPLE GETTING CAUGHT OR AN ALMOST TRAIN WRECK OR ANYTHING PLEASE POST, THANKS BEN