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[quote user="Convicted One"] <blockquote>Isn't it human nature to assign added significance to the perspective  that one prefers, personally?</blockquote> Those preferring the railroad's position will never want to get up off of their convictions that if the car had yielded as required, the collision would never have been possible, while those who side with the motorist will never relinquish  their commitment to the argument that,.  had the crossing protection been working properly..the undue hazard would have presented only a fraction of the risk.[/quote] I would expect drivers who get hit by trains or run into the sides of trains to believe that it is the fault of the train.  Everybody makes excuses.  Drivers will say they did not see the train or hear the horn.  They will say the crossing signals were not working.  They might even say that they did not believe trains ran on the particular day of the week they were struck.   <o:p></o:p> And of course the railroad company will blame the driver because they believe that trains always have the right of way.  The industry draws a line in the sand over that principle as one might expect.  However, that only leaves one solution to the problem, which amounts to changing driver behavior.  And after failing to do that for the last 175 years, one might conclude that it can’t be done.  That leads to the general conclusion that grade crossing victims are intractably stupid, and the remedy will only come when all of them get killed off.  However, I believe that there is something else at work here, and that the line in the sand may be actually perpetuating the problem by closing off the search for a solution.     <o:p></o:p> While it is true that drivers blame the railroads and the railroads blame the drivers, the actual fault should not be left up to mere perception.  Instead, it should be established by laws.  So I find it incredible that after 175 years, we can have grade crossing crashes where the applicable laws are such that the blame cannot be clearly established.
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