QUOTE: Originally posted by techguy57 Still, this got the railfan in me wondering: How many crossing does Homeland Security have cameras at and exactly why? I guess these would perhaps be considered " soft targets" but I'm unsure what the rationale would be for the funding of these cameras versus hiring more security personnel. [:D]
QUOTE: Originally posted by BillyFloyd QUOTE: Originally posted by Chris30 A quick followup... One person who got stuck on the tracks and was hit by either the train, or another car, is now on the local news and in the local papers BLAMING METRA! Why? As stated by the woman from her hospital bed, the crossing signals were not in sync with the traffic lights. - She didn't give any reason as to why she stopped on the tracks in the first place (I guess that she didn't see the big yellow sign telling her not to). I saw that one. She was whining that "she became trapped on the tracks with other drivers when the warning lights started flashing. She said because the traffic light ahead of them was red, the cars had no place to go. "'I was looking up, hoping the light would turn green,' she said Saturday from her room in Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood. ' "It never did.'" Oh... it's all the traffic light's fault for not being green. YOU! Out of the gene pool! Now!
QUOTE: Originally posted by Chris30 A quick followup... One person who got stuck on the tracks and was hit by either the train, or another car, is now on the local news and in the local papers BLAMING METRA! Why? As stated by the woman from her hospital bed, the crossing signals were not in sync with the traffic lights. - She didn't give any reason as to why she stopped on the tracks in the first place (I guess that she didn't see the big yellow sign telling her not to).
Carl
Railroader Emeritus (practiced railroading for 46 years--and in 2010 I finally got it right!)
CAACSCOCOM--I don't want to behave improperly, so I just won't behave at all. (SM)
QUOTE: Originally posted by arbfbe I would not be so heartless as not to offer my sympathies to those injured. They made a bad choice for sure but you can reasonably deduce they made thier choice based upon habits they have cultivated for some time. Stopping behind the gates on a clear crossing is a pretty good way to get rear ended by the overanxous bozo behind you who is not looking at your brake lights, only the signals at the intersection ahead. If more people learn the proper course of action then over time, better choices will be made. Those who now elect to sue the railroad for their individual poor choice and bad habits should loose the right to drive until the lawsuits are settled. Seems fair, right? Here is a hint. If the train is coming at you and you are in the car, GET OUT OF THE CAR, PRONTO! The car offers no protection against the train at all. Run in the direction of the train. I know that sounds wrong but if you run away from the train, when the train impacts your vehicle it may be shoved over you resulting in your death. DO NOT run in front of the train, just toward the direction the train is coming from, perferrably perpendicular to the tracks. Draw yourself a picture and think about it, this is the best way out of a bad situation. Think about it every time you see a train at a crossing, plan your route of escape if the guy behind shoves you out into the path of the train. If you plan for it often enough it may be almost second nature if you need to do it.
QUOTE: Originally posted by greyhounds QUOTE: Originally posted by equinox QUOTE: Originally posted by greyhounds All I can think of is that is was God's Will that none of them died. By that reasoning, you mean that is WAS God's will that they be hit by the train? No, and I'm not going to get into a religious argument on a railroad forum. People have free will. Those that stopped on the tracks did so of their own free will. But there can be Devine Intervention. I believe you can be saved from your own screw up though Devine Intervention. If you don't believe that, I'm not going to argue with you. It's your choice. But I believe that. And that's all I'm going to say here about that.
QUOTE: Originally posted by equinox QUOTE: Originally posted by greyhounds All I can think of is that is was God's Will that none of them died. By that reasoning, you mean that is WAS God's will that they be hit by the train?
QUOTE: Originally posted by greyhounds All I can think of is that is was God's Will that none of them died.
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QUOTE: Originally posted by smalling_60626 New York City had great success when it painted an anti-gridlock white box around crowded traffic intersections and subjected anyone who entered it to a fine unless they passed right out of it.
QUOTE: Originally posted by Big_Boy_4005 QUOTE: Originally posted by greyhounds The "Train rails started blinking!??". (see below) Or, if you're in a car stuck on the tracks when a train is comming, why don't you get out of the freaking car? Not only did they aparently stop on the tracks, but they wouldn't get out of their cars when they saw the train was on the way. You got to know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em, know when to walk away, and know when to RUN. http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-metra25.html Thank God, nobody died. Getting hit outside the vehicle is nearly sure death. The car may actually have saves the woman's life. As for the "rails blikning", I take that to be the reflection of the crossing signal's lights.
QUOTE: Originally posted by greyhounds The "Train rails started blinking!??". (see below) Or, if you're in a car stuck on the tracks when a train is comming, why don't you get out of the freaking car? Not only did they aparently stop on the tracks, but they wouldn't get out of their cars when they saw the train was on the way. You got to know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em, know when to walk away, and know when to RUN. http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-metra25.html Thank God, nobody died.
QUOTE: Originally posted by CShaveRR QUOTE: Originally posted by Green Bay Paddlers LOL - Logged on just to check the "railroad experts" from all around the country give their in-depth analysis of this wreck based on no actual data. Come on guys. Let the injured heal and the real pro's investigate the loss. I feel terrible for the engineer as well as those who were injured. Shelve the negative comments for now... Green Bay, why are you paddling us? Some of us have been around (a) Chicago, (b) Metra specifically, and (c) railroads in general long enough to have seen accidents similar to this. and to know what we're looking at when the pictures come up. I felt quite vindicated last night when the chief from the fire station that is fortuitously located near the crossing said that he sees behavior of the type I described at this crossing all the time. Do we need to be experts to say that the vehicles were where they shouldn't have been? That a traffic warning sign was ignored, regardless of whether or not the gates were functioning? That a veteran engineer was probably not operating his train any differently than he does day in and day out? That the engineers of the two westbound trains that went through there less than 15 minutes before the accident would have reported any problems they had seen with the grade crossing protection? Railroaders do that. Oh, the investigating experts will check everything, all right. But, as somebody said before, the railroaders know what's happened here. Most of them have been there, and have had close calls, if not been actually involved in similar situations. I happen to be a railroader. And I'm probably one heck of a lot more qualified to give an opinion than someone behind an anchor desk or in a television control room. Or even the member of the public who was sent to the scene with a microphone, a camera entourage, and a channel number. The injured (including the engineer, I've heard) will heal, we fervently hope. We aren't so callous as to wish anything but the best for them. But the fact that the people in the vehicles were hurt doesn't change the fact that they were in a situation that they should have avoided. (Jay, Harlem is east of the accident site, and these cars, and the train, were westbound. The light that was probably causing the backup was at Grand and Cumberland, nearly 3/4 mile away. I doubt that there would even be a call for coordinating lights that far from the tracks with the crossing. [It could very well have been coordinated with the grade crossing at Thatcher, which is the site of the River Grove station, where the train was due to stop]. In my non-expert opinion, it was probably slowing down for that stop already by the time it was put into emergency [engineer's statement says that he did that] before hitting the cars.) (Jim, you added your statement while I was composing mine. Amen to you, brother, as another railroader who's been there.)
QUOTE: Originally posted by Green Bay Paddlers LOL - Logged on just to check the "railroad experts" from all around the country give their in-depth analysis of this wreck based on no actual data. Come on guys. Let the injured heal and the real pro's investigate the loss. I feel terrible for the engineer as well as those who were injured. Shelve the negative comments for now...
QUOTE: Originally posted by CShaveRR Eastside, the acronymn you're looking for is CREATE (Chicago Region Environmental And Transportation Efficiency). And no, this crossing is not one of the 25 that were specified for that program. The list of the crossings I saw ranked them according to some list of the state's most dangerous crossings, and there were many omissions (for example, the second crossing on the CREATE list was third on the Illinois list). I don't know which crossings were on the Illinois list but not in the CREATE program--it's conceivable that they were spread all over the state.
QUOTE: The angle of this crossing is going to make a grade separation a very costly proposition, regardless of whether the street is sent over or under the tracks. Costly in terms of the structure itself and in the disrupted/removed properties surrounding it.
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