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Larry,   I see Dragoman has just posted much of what I was writing in response to your post.  I think he summed it up extremely well.  I will go ahead and post my reply even though some of it repeats what Dragoman said:  <o:p></o:p> Your comment seems to assume that paying attention is a matter of either continuously paying attention perfectly, or continuously not paying attention at all.  And if it is the latter, then yes I agree that no amount of warning will be enough.    But I don’t believe your scenario of prolonged, continuous, 100% lack of attention is a realistic example of something that actually occurs.  It appears that you are using it just to make your case that no extra warning is needed.  As I mentioned earlier, a driver has got to pay a fair amount of attention just to keep the vehicle on the road.     And also, as I mentioned earlier, no driver ever is paying perfect attention to everything all the time.  It is impossible to do that, so drivers must shift their attention around so that every relevant feature in their sphere of attention gets some attention every so often.  In that context of paying attention, it seems to me that a 3-second warning for fatal hazard is way too little.        But I do agree that 3 seconds would be enough warning if a driver happened to have his or her attention in the right place when the 3 seconds began.  And the driver in this crash did not.  But my point is not necessarily to vindicate the driver in this crash, but more to focus on the safety of the crossing in general as it pertains to future drivers.   The Amtrak engineer in this crash makes the same point.  And now the Nevada DOT is considering that same point as well.  I am convinced that they will add more active warning to this crossing after they consider the problem.    <o:p></o:p>
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