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[quote user="BaltACD"] <blockquote> <div>A picture I have seen of the crash site was taken well beyond the 'official' warning zone - and the lights were plainly visible, approximately 1/2 mile or more in advance of the crossing.  From my observations, the only possible excuse for a alert, responsible driver to miss them would be some kind of sun glare situation hiding them.  Outside of sun glare, the only other possible 'excuse' is not paying attention to the duties at hand - driving the truck in accordance with the surroundings ie. 4 red flashing light - 2 above the lane of travel and 2 to the right of the lane of travel.</div> </blockquote> <div style="clear:both;"></div> [/quote]   BaltACD,  <o:p></o:p> If you have a picture of the lights being plainly visible at ½ mile, I would like to see it.  Can you post it here?   This link has several photos of the approach to the crossing.    <a href="http://www.rgj.com/article/20120628/NEWS/306280101/Amtrak-crash-lawsuit-Rail-gates-broken-at-crossing?odyssey=tab%7Cmostpopular%7Cimg%7CNEWS&nclick_check=1">http://www.rgj.com/article/20120628/NEWS/306280101/Amtrak-crash-lawsuit-Rail-gates-broken-at-crossing?odyssey=tab%7Cmostpopular%7Cimg%7CNEWS&nclick_check=1</a>     If you open “View thumbs”, it shows the index of all 23 photos.  Number 16 shows a view with the pavement painted RXR.  The advance warning begins at the RXR sign, which is maybe 200-400 feet further back from the pavement RXR painting.  In this picture, the signals are not activated, so you cannot see how visible they would be.  But the assumption of the warning zone is that the signals are visible within it.    Picture #15 shows a view from the RXR sign, however, this is a telephoto shot.  You can see that it appears to be much closer to the crossing than picture 16, however it is further from the crossing.  Also, the caption says the RXR signs in 1/10th mile (528 ft.) from the crossing.  That is incorrect.  The best I can scale from the satellite maps is 900 feet.    Now a lot of people want to say that the driver had a vastly larger warning than the visible warning within the advance zone.  Look at picture #1, which shows the red flashing lights.  I would estimate that distance at about 225 feet.  The lights are certainly plainly visible.  Now go back 4 times further.  Do you think those lights are going to be obvious at 900 feet?  I don’t.  Look again at picture #16.  That is about 600-700 ft.  Do you think the lights will be obvious at that distance?   So, 900 feet is where the official warning zone begins, and that is about where the lights become visible.  I went out last summer in midday sun and looked at grade crossings and traffic lights.  I could not find an activated grade crossing, but I could find traffic signals.  At about ¼ mile, traffic light illuminations are visible, but not at all attention getting.  No way can you see them at ½ mile.     Moreover, at the Nevada crossing, there is a curve just ahead of the start of the advance zone, so the beam spread of the flashing lights would have to account for that curve in order to be seen at a greater distance.
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