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[Anonymous]

I just saw the news report of the Acela grade crossing accident from this morning. They are obviously going to test the gates and the lights and the loco, etc to make sure the physical plant was functioning properly.

Question: does anybody have an EXACT percentage of how many times the wrecks are the railroads' faults in grade crossing accidents? Essentially, how often is it not the drivers' faults?

Thanks for any information!

Tom

[Big_Boy_4005]

Sorry, I don't have any stats for you, but I would take an educated guess that most grade crossing accidents are NOT the railroad's fault. Maybe something like 80 to 90% the driver is at fault. The thing about trains is they are not inclined to obey the laws of man, they are required to obey the laws of physics.

Newton says trains don't stop quickly. Darwin says don't be on the track when a train is coming.

In the case of the accident with the Acela, early reports and witness accounts indicate that the crossing signals were working properly at the time of the crash. It sounds as if the driver went around the gate, but there is a good chance that she never saw the train, or misjudged it's speed if she did see it. I expect that the final report will clear Amtrak, however it may call into question the speed limit for that section of track with the grade crossing. The train was reportedly doing 80 MPH which was the limit for that section, but at that speed, there is no room for error.

80 MPH translates to 117.33 feet per second. If the signal activator was half a mile up the track from the crossing, that would translate to 22.5 seconds of signal time, and even less down gate time at 80 MPH. If the activator was further up the track the warning time would be longer, but it also might provoke impatient people to do just what was done today.

If you want hard numbers, check USDoT.

[Anonymous]

I agree with you 100% -- and in today's paper (I'm in Chicago) a woman's family who got killed by a Metra train is suing the railroad because they think it was their fault.

Argh, this stuff frustrates me.

[Big_Boy_4005]

There is a topic running on the Trains Magazine forum about yesterday's accident. Some of the other members have said that the gates at that crossing actually cover both sides of the road. The theory is that she got onto the tracks as the gates were coming down, and got trapped and froze. Clearly a mistake to enter. She should have stopped for the lights alone. The kids were innocent victims, I'm not sure what granny's excuse was.

He who hesitates is lost.

I went looking for actual stats at: www.dot.gov

I ended up at the FRA website. There is all kinds of accident data there, but nothing compiled into nice neat national numbers. You can actually look at every grade crossing, public and private, nationwide.

It is a natural reaction for victim's families to want to sue the railroad, but unless they can find something in particular that the railroad did wrong, chances are they go away empty handed. Ambulance chasers probably love to take those cases and see if they can find some dirt, on the off chance they can cash in. The railroads are used to this, and have their own legal departments who are very experienced in defending against such cases.

In a way the victims families should be happy that the railroad doesn't turn around and sue them for damage to equipment, and mental angui***o the crew.

It may be frustrating, but what can you do about it, other than not become a statistic yourself.

[Lord Atmo]

i'm almost willing to bet that 90% of that 80% of total accidents was drivers who thought they ould beat the train before it reached the road. they ALWAYS think that the train is going slower than it appears to be. it's just dumb. they dont realize the engineer has a hard time driving a locomotive after he witnessed a death on the tracks which that very locomotive was part of. suing the company doesn't help. good thing i ALWAYS stop at crossings.

also, in my drivers' handbook, there's a small section about railroad crossings. the vast majority of accidents occur at crossings that have no lights, bells, or gates. now, i was under the impression that even if the crossing isnt flashing and dinging, the locomotive is still blasting its horn, isn't it? how do people not hear that loud horn? maybe they tune it out because they're too busy yacking in their cell phones. then they receive a GEVO to the side...