I think they know the dangers, but they miscalculate. They misjudge the speed and distance of the train. Perhaps they could be educated that the gates are absolute stop and wait, but the misperception that they are not flows from the historical tradition of grade crossings.
With passive crossings, a driver is allowed to use his or her discretion to some extent as to whether or not it is safe to cross. Even activated signaled crossings without gates allow drivers to use their discretion in deciding whether it is safe to cross after being required to stop. It is not surprising that drivers think they are allowed to use the same discretion at gated crossings.
Moreover, their discretion ends up being highly distorted because they see every railroad crossing as producing a potentially massive delay, and they misjudge the speed and distance of approaching trains.
I think full width gate coverage would prevent all swerve-around-gate crashes. It is only a matter of funding to convert all active and passive crossings to full width gates. There would still be Run-Into-Train crashes caused by inattentive drivers, but there are other remedies for that problem.
We can try to educate, educate, educate people on the dangers of "beating the train" But, there will alwas be a segment of the population that, no matter how many times you tell them "don't do that" they will do it anyway. It doesn't matter what the risky behavior is, there will always be those who either don't, can't or won't understand the potential danger involved in risky behavior. I have stated it before. The desire to race around the gates stems, in my opinion, from the fact that some people are just impatient, and do not like letting anything get in their way, especially a smelly, loud, slow moving freight train.
You cannot legislate common sense. I can tell you, from all of my experience in Public Safety, there is a segment of the population in this country that just doesn't "get it" and probably never will.
CNW 6000 wrote:Next it'll be that "Railroad" and "Crossing" on the warning signs will have to be in Spanish...
I agree, I HATE HATE HATE how everything must be changed fro the other races and stuff. Ok, look, this is our country, learn OUR langauge, or get out. I'm sure many would agree. I prey for the train crew, I'm sure this hit hit them hard mentally. Mike
Dan
edblysard wrote:Wonder what spin the newspaper will put on this...
Wonder what spin the newspaper will put on this...
It looks like they are spinning it as a bonehead move by the driver...
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/tx/5359443.html
edit: fixed link
No doubt the headline will be in this theme:
"Train that was going too fast runs down van and kills innocents"
From the local ABC morning news...
Video shows the crossing is gated, with light and bells...
Police spokesman stated the gate, bells and lights, according to witnesses, were all working correctly, and the engineer was blowing for the crossing.
Train speed was 40 mph, and again, according to witnesses, the man wove around the downed gates and into the train's path.
All three passengers were killed, the driver, who was removed via Life Flight to Herman Hospital, is in serious condition, and facing man slaughter charges.
The spokesman went on to chastise the public, stating, in part "the gates and lights are there for a reason, to keep things like this from happening"..."they are a warning that a train is approaching"...
23 17 46 11
Good Morning,
Actually, the score is "train 4, Van 0" this morning. There were 4 men in the van and only the driver survived as of this morning and was life flighted out. It is said the max speed here is 40 mph, but I have never seen a train go very fast through here (and I have watched a lot).
The crossing is gated on both sides, and witnesses said the van went around the gates to beat the train as the car before them did successfully.
Names/ages of the victims was not given, but its probable that they were hispanic workers - but no one could be certain.
Again, my heart goes out to the train crew!
Mobilman44
ENJOY !
Living in southeast Texas, formerly modeling the "postwar" Santa Fe and Illinois Central
Locals, or tourist?
Lloyd yard has been there forever, all the locals around there know about the trains, and they all know it will clear up in a few minutes...
Besides, that's the Palestine sub, UP's main artery to
Dallas/ Forth Worth and Little Rock, with the Navasota sub come in also, a very busy pair of tracks, everyone who lives around there expects there to be train traffic.
Hi,
My wife and I went to Old Town Spring (Tx) for dinner tonight and found a tradgedy at the UP tracks accross the street from the restaurant.
The tracks are north of the yard in Spring, and the train was a 3 engined UP car carrier train headed south at a fairly slow speed to the unloading facility. A van (Astro?) attempted to beat it out, and lost.
This happened about 5 pm CST tonight (12/06), and when we got there they were still pulling the occupants from the van. They were three men, one was obviously dead, and the other two (I believe) were lifeflighted out. The locos were stopped less than 1/2 mile from the crossing, and the van was dragged about 100 plus feet or so. It was a MESS!
To attempt to beat out a train - even a slow moving train - is a stupid, foolish, non-sensical thing to do! And I have to say, my heart goes out to the engine crew, for they are truly the innocent victims of this.
I suspect this will be in the Houston Chronicle tomorrow, and hopefully they will keep the blame off the railroad.
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