[quote user="Euclid"]
diningcar,
Where do you find that information? Do you have a link?
Private source who wishes to remain so.
New info:
Train #4 was eastbound toward La Junta after stopping in Trinidad. Vehicle was stuck at public crossing with flashers and bells (no gates) located at MP 629.12 and was shoved to MP 629.8 approx. Tangent track visability for four (4) miles to Mp 625.
Engineer says vehicle was stopped on the tracks and accident is being investigated as a suicide.
There is a standard sign sometimes added to crossbucks that says "LOOK FOR TRAINS". I have seen it used where visibility to each side is limited, but perhaps it could apply to situations like the one in this accident where the cause was possibly complacency due to infrequent trains.
The news says the driver entered the crossing without stopping as would be proper if he had observed no train approaching.
K. P. HarrierBut, one of the photos for the below news source suggest only crossbucks were present. (See center small photo.) http://www.kob.com/new-mexico-news/report-train-hits-car-near-trinidad-five-killed/4181222/#.V3DI9Gfn-M8
It does appear to be only a crossbucks. The road looks pretty minor (lightly used) and the rail line hosts only the Amtrak train. Looks like that crossing is a good candidate for have the crossing removed/blocked.
C&NW, CA&E, MILW, CGW and IC fan
wanswheel https://www.gofundme.com/2bedqes
https://www.gofundme.com/2bedqes
Tragic and needless and senseless, but 100% the drivers fault.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
One additional factor applies to this incident (and to any others which may occur under similar circumstances).
There are only TWO (2) trains each day at this location, the westbound Amtrak #3 and the eastbound Amtrak #4. There are no other trains operated by BNSF on this line as has been discussed on threads concerning the Raton Pass route. Therefore drivers have become unconcerned as they approach these crossings, especially if the Amtrak trains are substantially off their scheduled times.
NDGPickup truck stops, right turn signal flashing with crossing lights activated as train approaches from left. Gate comes down behind truck as road straight thru traffic signals go to green to allow traffic to clear tracks, then cycles back to red. Looks as if traffic light on left-right road then goes to green and truck obeys that green???
I normally try to stay out of these 'idot'-type wreck and trespasser threads, but I wanted to comment on how nice it is to see common sense and a bit of understanding in a post or discussion of that kind.
I'd like to see a diagram of this crossing, or a view of where the gate for the turning lane the truck was in is located. He is certainly well ahead of it where we see him. Be interesting to see if the accident investigation checks to see if he had modified the exhaust or had the stereo on ... to be where he was, waiting on red, he might never have heard the crossing protection go on, and might have confused the various reds.
I do agree with the 'expect a train on any track at any time' idea, and try to abide by staying clear of any track in a vehicle just as I would when on foot. But sometimes confusion can set in.
When I was about six, my mother was driving on a road in Tenafly, NJ that ran parallel to the old EL Northern Branch. In those days the line still had a couple of peddler freights a day, and we were running alongside an RS-3 with a few freight cars, going reasonably quickly for that branch. We came to a stop sign ... and my mother promptly turned after stopping and went right across the tracks, giving me a very good view of the lower half of an RS3. My child's thought was 'what an interesting view! why haven't I seen this more often!' -- then my mother slammed on the brakes and came to a stop, starting to sweat, as she realized what she had just done.
Not that she wasn't a safe and conscientious driver ... all the rest of the time I saw her driving. It's that one moment that can get you, and in my opinion much more needs to be done to help drivers form the 'right' default reactions when around railroads.
The thing is you can't fix stupid. Gates,flashing red lights or flagman some Darwin award winner will ignore them and get hit.
At crossings with crossbuck only what happen to common sense Stop, Look,Listen and Live?
I know that's for the other drivers!
Larry
Conductor.
Summerset Ry.
"Stay Alert, Don't get hurt Safety First!"
Watch to left of screen.Pickup truck stops, right turn signal flashing with crossing lights activated as train approaches from left.Gate comes down behind truck as road straight thru traffic signals go to green to allow traffic to clear tracks, then cycles back to red.Looks as if traffic light on left-right road then goes to green and truck obeys that green???Train hits truck.http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=a3e_1466903833There are many, many more motor vehicles on the roads than there were, let say, in the 1950s, so there will be more accidents, a given.BUT!!!!One wonders if some drivers may not be aware of the forces involved having never worked around trains, nor have relatives who do. No longer Safety First at home over dinner and going down with Dad to see the Roundhouse on Sunday.As a Safety-First? Employee I came VERY close to getting killed two or three times by NOT thinking at all where I was going, forgot all about the approaching rolling stock, engine, etc. and stepped inside the ballast edge without looking. I mean CLOSE, later leg-shaking CLOSE! The grab iron brushed my sleeve.Trains are in no one's life 'til one appears out a side window @ 50 mph. 18000 Tons.Some folk have every toy in the world at their fingertips as in on-board flat screens, text and tablets and mirror to mirror sound which could drown out a 567 INSIDE a B Unit.Even cameras for backing up, and Radar, a good idea!Maybe they will put a back up camera on FRED, someday??Life appears to be a video game where the Gamers get points to maim and kill, then go to eat supper.Why 'Drive' when there is so much ELSE to do??More and more vehicles are 'Automatic' and their drivers would not be caught dead shifting, as it would take their hand off their devices. ( Whats a 3-on-the-column shift and a clutch??? All we had? )When they are digitizing me out their window for yelling at them when texting thru a red or a crosswalk, there are no hands on the wheel.Driving as a skill in some ways has gone to riding as a pleasure surrounded by all sorts of comforts.The other extreme is the churl with a Black lifted Diesel truck with more chips than McDonalds who drives as if he is outrunning a Lahare, or his Ex's Lawyer, or a Repo man.No cure, is there?Personally, I avoid driving, now, as I am afraid and eyesight going, esp @ nite.I should have been killed in two vehicle wrecks, one my fault, the other, a head-on that reduced both trucks to SCRAP, no fire, thankfully. The 'other' driver was 19, and had not a clew as to anything re 'motoring', just speed and FUN!Safety First means something everywhere, not just on the job.Hope he learned. I did.Two teens killed there in same location in March, Ambulance going out several times a day. Tow trucks, too.Later, the hearse makes a turn too, across the tracks to the other side of town, to the graveyard and sometimes to the building w/ a chimney and a gas meter.When one gets old, like me, we can rant away, and go on Forums, too. Best of both worlds??Maybe some might learn from MY mistakes?Setting the Independent AND the Automatic, lite engine, is a Good idea.Once I got off an Engine ( Steam ) and just brushed the Independent with my leg. The handle moved, I guess, and soon the Engine was passing me on the way to the shop wall.I won!
Once upon a time, the vertical post that held up the crossbuck was lettered, "STOP LOOK LISTEN." Is that still true?
In this metropolitan area we have, "Ran the red light," and, "Hit pedestrian in marked crosswalk," accidents on a daily basis. The 5-O'Clock traffic report always has several accident cleanups to screen, ranging from fender benders to total devastation. I take it for granted that most of my fellow four-wheeler pilots are inattentive, impaired or brain dead - and drive defensively in hopes of avoiding their accidents.
Brother Falconer, if you can come up with a crossing signal that is cheap to install, self-maintaining and vandalproof I'm sure that people will beat a path to your door. Unfortunately, present-day technology is none of the above.
Chuck
Are Grade Crossing signals are still too expensive?
Even after all the grade crossing and signaling companies have been consolidated, the signals are still cost prohibitive?
Why can they not come up with a low cost signal option for these remote grade crossings?
Watch my videos on-line at https://www.youtube.com/user/AndrewNeilFalconer
When one looks at the situation broadly, years ago railroads employed a good percentage of the American population. But, now, few work for railroads anymore, and the railroads are trying to eliminate many that remain. We as railroaders and railfans are so conscious of trains that to be in a collision with a train is as often as a blue moon. But, apparently society as a whole is losing their sense of trains (because nobody basically works for railroads anymore). Add to that unawareness anxieties of life, and it is not surprising collision occur, even with advances to rail technology.
But, one of the photos for the below news source suggest only crossbucks were present. (See center small photo.)
http://www.kob.com/new-mexico-news/report-train-hits-car-near-trinidad-five-killed/4181222/#.V3DI9Gfn-M8
Again, since few are employed by railroads anymore, the public simply isn’t conscience of trains. We always look for trains. It is hard to believe most people don’t look for trains! And that unawareness kills so many of them.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- K.P.’s absolute “theorem” from early, early childhood that he has seen over and over and over again: Those that CAUSE a problem in the first place will act the most violently if questioned or exposed.
A very large segment of our society teaches their offspring that rules, signs, and automated devices are advisory in nature and the decision to obey them is up to individuals. Look around, you see it every day. There is a child about 9 or 10 years old in my neighborhood who tears around the streets on an off road motorcycle. Children at McDonalds playland wear their shoes, climb on the outside of the devices, and climb up the tube slides right next to the sign prohibiting all those things, while their parents sit at a table a few feet away ignoring them. Parents take their child out of school for the first day of hunting season or to go on vacation.
Then those same parents look for someone else to blame when their child falls and breaks some body part at playland, gets hit by a car riding their go cart or dirt bike in the street, gets attacked by an alligator while swimming in a body of water that is clearly signed "no swimming", or their car gets hit by a train when they ignored the warning device.
Dave
Lackawanna Route of the Phoebe Snow
The better question would be have drivers become so numb to these incidents that they have absolutely no fear of ignoring and avoiding the signs and devices that protect grade level crossings.
At about 10 AM today, near Trinidad, Colorado, the AMTRAK train [S.W, Chief ] going from Chicago to Los Angeles struck a van that had gotten on the tracks, and five people were killed and one child was apparently taken to a hospital with serious injuries. There were no reported injuries on the train that had some 286 people onboard.
See linked article @ http://www.aol.com/article/2016/06/26/five-killed-in-colorado-amtrak-train-car-crash/21419384/
My point in posting this is to ask, Are these incidents happening so often that we do not seem to notice unless there is a number of seriously injured or killed as a result of the collision between the train and a vehicle?
Thank goodness that the collision did not derail the train, causing potentially more casualties.But still, five of six people in the van did not survive [Included in the casualties was also the van's driver.]
Are we as a community becoming 'numbed' to these events ? I am sure that the train's crew will not forget; neither this day, nor the highway-rail grade crossing incursion that resulted in the collision that took five lives'.
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