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In my earlier post on 8/18, I questioned the meaning of the comment given in the opening statement of their preliminary investigation when they said this:  <o:p></o:p> “Investigators have documented that the sight distance on the section of roadway leading up to the grade crossing from the truck driver’s direction of travel was over 1 mile.”  <o:p></o:p> In response to that comment, I said that I was not convinced that they meant that a driver could see the flashing lights from over a mile away and around a 30-degree curve.  I said that they might have simply meant that there was an unobstructed view of the crossing from over a mile.  If there is no obstruction between the viewer and the crossing, you could call that an unobstructed view of the crossing.  But the pertinent point is whether or not you can see the flashing lights.  <o:p></o:p> Now, in listening to the language in their video, I find that it precisely confirms the elements of my suspicion about what they were saying and what it meant.  In the video, the narrator says this:  <o:p></o:p> “As far as the visibility of the tracks as a truck would have approached from the south, there is no obstructions in that visibility, and the crossing should have been visible from well over a mile.”  <o:p></o:p> If I were investigating this, I would have set the crossing signals to flash on a clear day around noon, and drove south on the highway to the point where the flashing lights were no longer visible.  And then I would have announced how many feet from the crossing I was when the flashing lights became completely invisible.   <o:p></o:p> Unlike the NTSB, I would not have couched my findings in whether or not obstructions to visibility existed, or used the phrase, “crossing should have been visible.”  I would not have spoken of “visibility of the tracks,” whatever that is supposed to mean.  They don’t even define what they mean by “crossing” in the phrase, “crossing should have been visible.”  Crossing can mean the location where the tracks cross the highway, or it can mean the un-activated signals, signal tower, and signal bungalow, or it can mean the red flashing lights of the activated signals.
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