http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2011/06/14/2378080/train-hits-truck-in-kings-mountain.html
http://www.wsoctv.com/news/28229390/detail.html
Perhaps a reading test should be on the CDL application.
Dave
Lackawanna Route of the Phoebe Snow
The link to the TV station story suggests that even truck drivers pay more attention to their GPS than to the real world around them.
H.R. person to person applying for truck driving job: "So, you want to drive truck for us? Let's see if you're qualified: look closely into this mirror, and tell me what you see."
Applicant: "At first I could see myself, but now I can't because the mirror got foggy".
HR: "You fogged the mirror? Then you're qualified".
Apparently this crossing is 'humped' by a couple feet, which is a trap for any low-bed trailers and even for standard ones with the landing dolly wheels or other accessories hanging down too low.
So with this happening at least 4 times in 3 years per the linked newspaper article (this was the 2nd time in 5 months as well), large signs in English, Spanish, and with graphics, too were installed, per one of the comments.
Also, the road - Battleground Ave. - is parallel to and just a few feet away from the railroad tracks, and evidently this happens when the trucks try to turn to cross the tracks.
I wonder if that turning move makes it hard to place the signs where the truck drivers can see them in enough time to stop ?
Anyway, "If they don't know, they shouldn't go !". Fortunately, few injuries have resulted - so far.
- Paul North.
....This reeks of a "no brainer".....Seems to me, with the history of what is happening, even with warning signs....either close this crossing or someone spend some MONEY. Fix the approaches to the crossing.
Or at least, set up "a study" to fix it...Duh.
Quentin
Why not have the state highway folks eliminate the hump as a safety issue? Obviously the signs are ignored and will be in the future. Solving the problem is the key, so as to avoid some horrible crash with a tanker and an Amtrak. Arresting the driver isn't going to help prevent that.
C&NW, CA&E, MILW, CGW and IC fan
I've driven that road many times. Without doing a LOT of grading and paving, or moving the road or tracks it would be very difficult to reduce the hump. The warning signs are posted about 100ft from where you turn to go across the crossing. If I remember correctly it also has a sign that says low vehicles may drag. There is plenty of warning. Truck drivers are just not paying attention.
Yes truck drivers do pay attention,they just think trains dont run anymore.
Russell
Eliminate the crossing? I agree. That being said I seem to remember that in NC the state DOT has very limited jurisdiction inside city limits? That was many years ago and may not be applicable today?
If that is so if this is on NC RR (state owned) trackage maybe the state can require the crossing to be closed across state property?
Some answers for Phoeebe Vet to answer?
dekemd I've driven that road many times. Without doing a LOT of grading and paving, or moving the road or tracks it would be very difficult to reduce the hump. The warning signs are posted about 100ft from where you turn to go across the crossing. If I remember correctly it also has a sign that says low vehicles may drag. There is plenty of warning. Truck drivers are just not paying attention.
All you say about the truck drivers is probably true and, yes, it might be difficult to raise the grade of the road, but hardly impossible. So what to do? Do nothing except blame ignorant drivers and wait for a horrible accident which will be the fault of a driver? That is not an mature response.
After looking at the 'street view" of the crossing , I would tend to agree with Blue Streek 1.You know the local entities are going to be very resistant to closure of what appears to be a convient crossing in a commercial/retail area. Don't even approach reconstruction of the crossing/intersection; budgets being what they are now. It is a State Highway [NC214]. The NC Dot would probably consider the reconstruction, but then it has to be scheduled, prioritized, and budgeted. In 1962/63 I worked on the Orange/Wake County Master Plan( including the RTP area. It took 15/20 years to get some of that implemented.
The only metric that will get a fix speed up is most likely a really bad crsh, that kills some folks and scatters POVs, and rail cars about. Unfortunately, that kind of event is the only pressure political entities respond quickly to.
An intersection closure at the Battleground Rd and NSRR is the least costly, and probably would be pretty disruptive among the locals. The costs to lower the NSRR ROW would look like a lottery winners big number. And it probably would be a cold, rainy day, you know where before it got done. Looks like a mainline ROW, so a speed reduction on the NS is probably out of the question, and lots of horn action from the passing trains would wear thin, pretty quickly.
schlimm dekemd: I've driven that road many times. Without doing a LOT of grading and paving, or moving the road or tracks it would be very difficult to reduce the hump. The warning signs are posted about 100ft from where you turn to go across the crossing. If I remember correctly it also has a sign that says low vehicles may drag. There is plenty of warning. Truck drivers are just not paying attention. All you say about the truck drivers is probably true and, yes, it might be difficult to raise the grade of the road, but hardly impossible. So what to do? Do nothing except blame ignorant drivers and wait for a horrible accident which will be the fault of a driver? That is not an mature response.
dekemd: I've driven that road many times. Without doing a LOT of grading and paving, or moving the road or tracks it would be very difficult to reduce the hump. The warning signs are posted about 100ft from where you turn to go across the crossing. If I remember correctly it also has a sign that says low vehicles may drag. There is plenty of warning. Truck drivers are just not paying attention.
I didn't say to just do nothing. I was just pointing out that the options were limited and expensive. With the present economy and budget shortfalls in NC, I highly doubt the state will spend the money to fix it. Unfortunately a horrible accident is probably what it will take for the purse strings to be loosened enough to fix this crossing.
dekemd Truck drivers are just not paying attention.
Truck drivers are just not paying attention.
Might be more accurate to say that some truck drivers are not paying attention.
In my neck of the woods, the Leucadia Blvd crossing of the AT&SF Surf Line catches a truck every few years, despite signs warning of the hump. On a similar vein, there's a parking lot near where I work that has a sign warning about a sharp breakover angle on one of the driveways leading in/out of the parking lot and I've seen a few semis high-centered there.
- Erik
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