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<p><span style="font-size:16px;">While reading </span><a style="font-size:16px;">the thread on the recent crane-hauling truck / train collision in Louisiana</a><span style="font-size:16px;">, I came across the following post which started me thinking:</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16.3636360168457px;">[quote user="zardoz"]</span></p> <blockquote class="quote" style="font-size:16.3636360168457px;"> <div class="quote-user">seppburgh2</div> <div class="quote-content">And let me put this out there, if  the PTC set off an emergency application can the train crew jump off before impact? </div> </blockquote> <div class="quote-footer" style="font-size:16.3636360168457px;"> </div> <p style="font-size:16.3636360168457px;">Not at 45mph!  </p> <p style="font-size:16.3636360168457px;">Well, yes, they could jump, but at that speed I'd take my chances in my 'safety cab' locomotive.  Now if had been a gasoline or propane truck, then I might reconsider, even at 45mph.</p> <p style="font-size:16.3636360168457px;">[/quote]</p> <p style="font-size:16.3636360168457px;">I've been reading up on crew safety a lot recently, including <a>this great thread from 2011</a> about collision posts. The topic has some real-world importance to me — I'm not a professional railroader but I am an operating employee at a tourist railroad and regularly work alongside train crews on larger railroads as a photographer and freelance journalist (see page 50 of the November <em>Trains</em> or the <a href="http://trn.trains.com/videos/railroads/2014/09/testing-on-the-t-with-mbta">video extra</a>). While I don't want to be paranoid, I am aware of the risk I take every time I go out on the rails, whether I'm working as a brakeman on a 25 mph tourist line or just riding and photographing an 80 mph commuter train on the Northeast Corridor. We have one crossing that — when I'm controlling a shove — I go through with one hand on the air whistle and the other on the backup hose dump valve, watching the cars fly across the tracks without even slowing and wondering whether the driver of that red one will stay stopped or change his mind. Grade crossing incidents, trespasser stikes, suicides, even collisions with other trains...they don't care whether you're a career railroader or just somebody in the wrong place at the wrong time.</p> <p style="font-size:16.3636360168457px;">Railroaders, what are your thoughts, experiences, and practices on jumping versus riding out a collision? When would you jump? When would you hunker down and protect your head? Do you worry about your derailing train hitting you if you jump? What if you're in a cab car on a standing-room-only commuter train and there's nowhere to run? Has your employer trained you about what to do when a collision is imminent?</p>
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