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I am thinking a little more about how this crossing was protected.  Certainly lights and gates are the epitome of crossing protection art.  They should be all the protection that is needed.  As a further measure, they can be set up to prevent running around the gates.  <o:p></o:p> What seems relatively unusual with this crash site is the speed limit of the road.  Seventy mph is no big deal, but I can’t recall seeing any roads in my location with an active grade crossing on a 70-mph road.  Around here, seventy is only allowed on some freeways, and never on a two-lane highway.  The two-lane highways are 55-mph speed limit, and they will pull you over at much over sixty.   <o:p></o:p> But out in the wide open, with little traffic, with a long way to go, on a straight highway with a 70-mph limit, and sparse law enforcement, I could see some major vehicle speeds occurring.  Maybe the state is not too concerned about it because each driver is mostly risking only his or her life speeding down the lonely highway.   <o:p></o:p> However, the introduction of an Amtrak train full of people, as a direct obstruction to this fast, lonely highway ought to raise an eyebrow.   I think the state should have recognized this peril and done a little more to prevent it.  It is not to say that it is okay for a truck driver to run 80-100 mph, but if they do so routinely, the state has a responsibility to know about it and act upon it.  They manage the roadways.  Sometimes the blame falls on the last person who could have prevented the accident, but did not.   <o:p></o:p> Authorities always point out that you can see grade crossing lights from such and such distance.  Presumably it is enough distance to stop a vehicle.  It is reported that the lights at this Nevada crossing are timed to start flashing 25 seconds before the train reaches the crossing.  <o:p></o:p> But these crossing lamps are tiny features in wide-open country when you first see them upon approach.  And most people driving 80-100 mph tend to concentrate just ahead of their vehicle to make sure it stays on the road as it sucks up the highway like a Shop Vac.   <o:p></o:p> It may be that ultra-fast trucks, requiring extra stopping distance, are capable of simply overrunning the warning of the grade crossing, if only a tiny interval of distraction is introduced that shortens that warning interval.   If that is so, it seems that the method of protection is inadequate.  Authorities need to tromp the speed limit down approaching a grade crossing, especially one that hosts passenger trains.   Every state knocks the speed limit down for going through the smallest of towns.       <o:p></o:p> Regardless of the truck driver’s negligence, the public was inadequately protected in this case.  It seems to me that somebody larger than the truck driver dropped the ball here.   <o:p></o:p> The truck driver could be scapegoated for the negligence of public officials who looked the other way in the face of an obvious road hazard in their state.
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