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When I used to work on the west side of the metro, sometimes I'd come home through Anoka, and I've been over this crossing numerous times.  I passed over this crossing a few days after the accident, and I saw BNSF RR police out there to watch-over the friends/families coming out to lay flowers at the scene. It's a two-lane road, and you have rather good visibility towards the east as you approach the crossing headed south (headed south out of Ramsey on that road you swing a little ways east then turn back south towards the tracks).  Whenever I've been out there, in fact, I've always thought the only good visibility one would have if you wanted to photograph a train there would be facing east on the north side of the grade-crossing.  In other words, a westbound train approaching that crossing would've certainly been visible to a car headed south at that location.  I never chose that particular spot to snap pictures, because the road is too narrow and too busy, there's no public parking close enough, and the ROW is somewhat elevated so that the angle from the private land adjoining the tracks would be too low for my tastes (an upward angle).  The grade-crossing is one of those where the road rises-up to the level of the tracks then quickly drops-down again.  Were you to try to drive around those gates on that narrow road, your car (and from what I understand their car was small) would possibly go off the pavement and ride onto the rail, and BNSF has heavy rail installed there (I'd be willing to bet a small car would get hung-up if they were trying to maneouver that way).  I can't recall for sure if the gates cover both lanes on each side, but I think they do, so going around them would quite possibly lead to getting hung-up. I personally have never seen a train passing over that crossing without the gates, flashers and bells working.  Every train I've ever seen there has sounded its horn.  That's an extremely busy area, especially in rush hour, and I have to believe if there was ever a case that the gates didn't work BNSF would get on it PDQ.
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