Trains.com

Sight Distance and preventable deaths at grade cro

4882 views
228 replies
1 rating 2 rating 3 rating 4 rating 5 rating
  • Member since
    April 2003
  • 305,205 posts
Posted by Anonymous on Friday, May 23, 2003 8:14 PM
Also to furhter add proof to this.. i would like to add this law to back it up

All sign posts, signs, poles, telephone polls, or any object placed within 20 (TWENTY) feet from the road 20 feet = 240 inches, must be secured very poorly, so that any object heading for it will knock it over effortlessly.

That includes Railroad lights, BLOCK SIGNALS located within 20 feet from the road, general signs, construction signs, ETC.

how effortlessly? If i ran full tilt into a Signal it should, In theory if the law is fallowed, Topple over,
NOTE: This applies only to the signal towers located close to the road, all others should be bolted down securely, and shouldn't tumble with such great ease

This is one claus taken from the Candian Highway Safety act.. NOTE: It was at one point called that, i belive it has been renamed.

kev.
  • Member since
    April 2003
  • 305,205 posts
Posted by Anonymous on Friday, May 23, 2003 6:05 PM
Last forum was addressing mikes concerns. it had nothing to do with your 'no signals' theory, you ***.

NEXT issue, i did do my math wrong.. i shoudld technically be 9 months over 19 years old. heres the time line

17 - i started obseriving the conductor job, on my own time, woulantary status
18- I was hired, and became an Aprentus.
19.5 (19 years old, 6 months) after a total of 2 and a half years Training, i was officually no longer an aprentus. and became a conductor..

Have you neevr seen a 19 years , 6 months old i was that on my first day of "conductorhood"

but now i'm 19 years old, 9 months, i've been an official conductor for 3 months!. i'm sure my math doesn't add up. OH wow, i actually did say it had been 2.1 years.. well.. my math when it comes to years sucks.. so tell me.. i'm almost 20 (19 and 9 months) and i was 16 and... 8 months when it happened. nope..my bad,, 16 and 7 months.. so 2. 1 years is how many months? 25.2 months.

No, your right.. CONGRADULATIONS!! HOW DOES IT FEEL?? i messed up with my calcualtions.. you can do the math for me, loser

so insted of 2.1 which i typed i should have put 3.1 i'm sorry. i pressed 2 instead of 3, will you ever forgive me?

and don't you dare doubt that story.. you weren't their. DID you see that girl hit the SIGNAL?
NO, I HAD NO CHOICE BUT TOO, SO SCREW YOU OK?

would you like to tell my Girlfriend it never happened.. that she happened to imagine the same thing i did.. that she saw an imaginary train hit an imaginary car... and an imaginary girl flew out of the car and knocked over the imaginary signal.. i wouldn't dare tell her that..

oh and i checked.. It doens't take much to knock over a signal. a speed of 20kmh would do jsut fine.. and i'm not converting that for the likes of you

Your the equvalent to a peice of trash, and how dare you sir, how dare you.

Your a foolish heartless B@sterd.A Wasp has more compassion then you.. your a coward and nothing short of an idiot.

Even though i your the biggest loser in the world, i still have enough decency to tell you i hope you never see what i saw. I hope you don't. I hope you don't get tortured like i was by nightmares, no.. i may hate you.. but i wi***hat upon no one. I hope you never have to live, see, and feel what i went through that day.. and for you to pick on a few technicalities i screwed up on..

shame on you

SHAME ON YOU!

YES everyone it was 3.1 years ago, not 2.1 SORRRYY! oh and another technicality beofre screw face here picks up on it.. there were 7 PEOPLE in the car.. not 7 CHILDREN! 5 children and 2 adults.

there are so many names i want to call you.. so many things that you are.. but i won't.

I hope nothing like THIS ever happens to you.. at least mike has compassion.. he saw through my technical errors...

Shame on you, and yes there are younger people then yourself working on the Railroad

your not even worth anyones time

Kev
  • Member since
    April 2003
  • 305,205 posts
Posted by Anonymous on Friday, May 23, 2003 4:01 PM
Let's see young whipper snapper with big story. 16 when happened plus 2.1 years--- carry the -0-give you a year for maybe months makes you no more than 19.1 years old. Railroads hire people with 3 years prior work experience usually so I think you don't work for the railroad.

Then you have kids knocking down signal posts, then you say there are no signals. What kind of low life scum bag are you???

  • Member since
    April 2003
  • 305,205 posts
Posted by Anonymous on Friday, May 23, 2003 3:16 PM
"why in the world" would i not go work for the railroad? They didn't so anyhting wrong.. their train was following its usual track, its the man who was driving the car.. he thought he could cheat the train... wrong..

I must put what happened in the past behind me. GO out and buy the new or relitively new U2 album (All that you can't leave behind), put it in Cd player and listen to the stong... "Stuck in a moment you can't get out of" and listen to the end part 3:33 on... the final words of that song are... "it's just a moment, this time will pass.." and all moments will eventually pass with time.. Everyone should go get this album. My girlfriend who has most likely been traumatozed by that incident isn't going to let go any time soon.. let's see it's been 2.1 years now.. shes still very hateful towards trains.

Note: there is a law in Canada.. that states, should there be No bells, lights, or gates on a train crossing, The X therfore sybolises a STOP sign and a full stop must be made.
  • Member since
    April 2003
  • 305,205 posts
Posted by Anonymous on Friday, May 23, 2003 2:02 PM
Your foul language does nothing for the story. I am truly sorry that you had to deal with it. Now imagine if you can a mother or father going through those pains KNOWING it COULD OF been prevented by something as simple the railroad spending some of that PROFIT on safer crossings. People going around gates is hard to fathom. WHY?WHY?WHY? That is something that we can only address through education however, people who aren't trying there luck but actually trying to cross safely need the benefit of the railroad doing there PART. Both need to be addressed, but they ARE NOT the SAME problem. Why in the world did you go to work for the railroad? It would seem that you would have the same aversion as your girlfriend.
Mike

This is what we are fighting;
> Hello:
>
> My name is Tracy Sheldon and I am handling this fatality claim for Parker
> Oil. I am with Utica National. I received a copy of your email yesterday on
> the accident and your
> thoughts... we took your advise and went back to the site and you were right
> on the mark... the entire area has been clear cut and the tracks are now very
> visible. The good news is that I was out on the site two days ago and took
> seven rolls of film of the area before the railroad clear cut the area. I am
> still amazed. It was pouring the rain here yesterday and I was told by the
> residents that they were out there for 12 hours.
>
> I don't know who you are, but I wanted to thank you because I would not have
> gone back to the site. But, thanks to you we have what appears to be an
> interesting
> liability situation unfolding. I hope this will prevent another death.
>
> Thank you.. thank you .. thank you....
>
>
> Tracy Sheldon
> Sr. Claim Specialist
> Utica National Insurance Group
  • Member since
    April 2003
  • 305,205 posts
Posted by Anonymous on Friday, May 23, 2003 1:02 PM
To missouri... and Mike... and everyone else who seems to have a problem..

I'm warnign you Exit out now if your so aginst Bad language..

I'd love to know what the HECK (not the original word) is wrong with you too. Ed knows exactly what it's like to see someone get hit on the Tracks.. (sorry to say) he was a conductor at the time..

I was an onlooker at another accidnet...
I had to watch a Mini-van get hit by a freight train moving at 65-70 MPH..
There were 7 kids in that van... which one of you was there... Did any of you 2 rememebr seeing all the blood covering the various peices of the car? I suppose you guys then rememebr how as soon as the train hit.. how one of the kids went flying through the side window right? how they got tossed in the about a fott, maybe 2 feet off the ground and struck the block signal so hard they broke their back and died 5 minutes later?

Remeber there was not one.. 2..or even 3 people in this van

Their were 7

Can you count that high?

I don't suppose you rememebr how the baby.. somehow got underneith the freight train.. and by the time the 22 car freight was done.. there was only a hand left on the tracks?

a 24 month old hand.

How the mother and father in the front seat.. exploded when they were hit... parts of them where eveywhere..

I just sat in the car and waited for the train to end.. waited..

and waited...

it felt like forever

I never knew a total of 7 people held so much blood.. i suppose both of you dim witts remember the clean up after...

they had to go body hunting? remeber that
Then you know...1 was found at the base of block signal 50-N. broken up back- Dead.
She slammed into that signal so hard.. she broke 3 of the 4 bolts holding that signal to the ground.

Factor in the inertia of that smart A$$, and what do you get?
how the HEL! does a Four year old toppel a signal? does that ilustrate to you the Force of this impact? WHERE you there, cuz both of you geniuses.. seem to know it all.
3 of the bodies never made it out of the car, so thats 1 + 3, plus the baby.. 5.. 2 more children were still unacounted for.. They never found them.. they presumed they were still in the car when it came to rest peaces of it almost a mile down the track..

How many of you whitnessed this accident?
I did.
How many of you broke down when the CN locomotive backed up, and across the CN was a giant smear of blood?
I did.
How many of you later had to seek professional help?
I did.
I was only 16 at the time. Driving along.. i had just got my license. stopped behind an impatient van who misjuged the speed of an oncomming CN Freight train and.. got killed
Unlike Ed, i don't know what his reason was for crossing the gates.. The visisbility was perfect.. that day there was an 30 mile visibility.. if you took a telelescope you can see the train comming half an hour before it arrived..
so why?

why did that driver put me through that?
They didn't pay for my councelling.

Do you know how hard it is to look your Girlfriend in the face after you've seen an accidnet like this? DO YOU? She was sitting in the passenger seat when it happened.

DO you know how hard it was to watch this.. with her sitting right there?

Do you know how hard it is to comfort someone when your crying yourself?

DO YOU KNOW how hard it is to break down in front of your Girlfriend?

DO YOU KNOW what it's like having to restrain her from going and doing soemthing like running on to the tracks?

I had to pull her away 5 hours later. She was crying non stop and throwing up, DOES THAT sound familiar?. It took an hour to get home.. every 5 minutes i had to stop so she could throw up outside the car..

We made it home.. she stayed with me that night.. we didn't get any sleep... I watched her throw up about 35 times since the accident. We had jsut seen what no one ever wants to see, we had seen the ugly side to trains. we had seen the beast.

So missouri, If you don't know what the Fukc is happening, shut the *** up, alright?

Just so you know.. My girlfriend won't step foot on a train.. shell never visit me as long as i work on a train.

ED, i know how u feel.

So missouri, Mike, anyone else who wnats to put their name here: _______, you knew that all right? YOU WERE right there when it happened right?

You 2 just don't know. and if your lucky you never will.

Kev.
  • Member since
    April 2003
  • 305,205 posts
Posted by Anonymous on Friday, May 23, 2003 6:30 AM
Hey Ed,
I have a picture of a CSX crossing with 50Ft. of sight distance. They own 100ft. of ROW. Think you could help light a fire under them. We need the help, because the DOT is in bed with them completely. So let me get this straight you pro's have a hard time judging speed, but a teenager when he makes a "stupid move" is supposed to be held completely responsible? So he was "trying" to get himself killed? Not exercising "self preservation"? Your thoughts are well taken, Ed. However can you help me to understand exactly what role the RR has in this? You seem to think none.
Mike
  • Member since
    April 2003
  • 305,205 posts
Posted by Anonymous on Friday, May 23, 2003 6:17 AM
That a wonderful idea IF you don't happen to be a person who lost a loved one due to the attitude of "profit over life and safety". I bet if we all just bury our heads in the sand and say "LALALALA" it will all go away and those 400 or so "fools" who made a "stupid move" just got what was coming to them because of course its all there fault. 400 people trying to beat a train, not one of them exercising "self-preservation" and "reasonable care". If they only would of hopped out of there car and looked down the tracks, it would of been a different story huh! I pray that none of you EVER have to suffer first hand, losing a child or spouse. Ed, where and when did your "accident" happen? Why the secrecy? I don't have time to look through the thousands of "stupid moves" on the FRA site, help me narrow it down please. Thanks and have a wonderful day!
Mike
  • Member since
    April 2003
  • 305,205 posts
Posted by Anonymous on Friday, May 23, 2003 1:14 AM
There you go blowing smoke Unihead Ed. Railroads pay nothing for equipment and supposedly volunteer 10% which is more than made back in overcharges.Monarch is well informed on how the safety budget works. How the railroads make SURE all crossings don't have protection by controlling the miniscule safety budget through the USDOT.

Somebody could contribute gates for every crossing in the US tomorrow and the railroads would through a holy fit because it costs them like $2,500 a year for every active crossing in operation/maintenance costs. SOOOOO every passive crossing saves them that amount. The cheaper to kill'em formula kicks in. And by the way gates are $100,000 here so who gets the extra $50,000 in your state? Overpasses and underpasses aren't as safe as they think so every 10 million overpass is 100 crossings that could be fixed. 300 crossings if the prices weren't monopolized by the railroads!!!


http://www.auditor.state.mo.us/press/2001-79.htm
..,.Despite this duty, contributions from railroad corporations have represented just small percentage of the money spent on grade crossing upgrades. The railroad’s legal duty should act as an incentive to contribute more funds to warn or protect motorists at dangerous crossings...

http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/legsregs/directives/fapg/cfr0646b.htm (1) Projects for grade crossing improvements are deemed to be of no ascertainable net benefit to the railroads and there shall be no required railroad share of the costs.
  • Member since
    April 2003
  • 305,205 posts
Posted by Anonymous on Friday, May 23, 2003 12:59 AM
Geez...I dont under stand why we still resopond to this post. It went to the EXACT ending as last time! I also enjoy being personaly atacked over & over again just like old times. This obviouly is geting worn out, same attacks, different people. Lets can it and get back to the reason this fourm was made TO ENJOY TRAINS!!!!!
pea brain aka; Icemanmike - Milwaukee
  • Member since
    March 2002
  • 9,265 posts
Posted by edblysard on Friday, May 23, 2003 12:53 AM
Hey there wabash,
You and I have had some dissagreements and some agreements in the past, but we see eye to eye on a lot of things, so I would like to ask you a favor, if I could. Monarch is the mother of one of the fatalities, and I did a little checking.
You can take it from here, but I am asking, only asking now, if you would leave this one alone?
Thanks,
Ed

23 17 46 11

  • Member since
    March 2002
  • 9,265 posts
Posted by edblysard on Friday, May 23, 2003 12:47 AM
Hi, CSXNS,
He isnt a he, its the mother of one of the fatalities. Go read the rest of her post. You dont know me, and dont owe me a thing, but if I could ask you a favor, ease off on this one?
Thanks, Ed

23 17 46 11

  • Member since
    March 2002
  • 9,265 posts
Posted by edblysard on Friday, May 23, 2003 12:39 AM
Hi Monarch,
You would need whole day to read mike and missouri's postings, and my bet is your a fairly intelligent person, so it wouldnt take you long to get their drift. In one of his post, mike states that if the line of sight had been clearer, the young boy would have been better able to judge the speed of the train, and make a decision to stop or go. As a railroader, I can tell you our side of this, and our answer to that statement. Flatly, we wi***here was some way to remove the option of weather to go or not, and reduce it to no, you can't go. Even those of us who do this for a living can have a hard time judging the speed of a oncoming train, why in the world would a teenager be expected to be able to do so?
One of the common gripes they both seem to have is that the railroads make a profit. And just why shouldnt they? We are a business, after all.
Dont know how it works in your state, but here the DOT decides what gets a gate, and what dosnt. The railroads pick up 75% of the inital cost, and 100% maintainance. The gates are there for your protection, not ours, about the only thing thats going to really hurt the locomotive, besides a gasoline truck or a military tank, is another locomotive. I ask you, in all seriousness, what other business puts out that much ca***o protect others? You used the dollar amount of $150,000.00 per gate, and your town has six crossings, so thats, (I am a math retard, had to find the calculator) $900,000.00 just for your town, and how many towns are in your state? You see where the math is going. And we dont even get to pick what we are paying for.
Now I know a large part of the monies for these and other safety devices comes from the federal goverment, but the railroads still bear a great deal of the cost.
Was your daughters life worth $150,000.00? No, in fact thats a insult, there is no dollar amount you could ever place on a human life. But, and I really belive this, the money is allready there in the federal budget, and has been for ages. You know our city applied for a 10 millon dollar grant to build alternate transportation other than automobiles, such as dedicated bicycle lanes and such, but the only thing they did was to paint a white stripe two feet into the street from the curb, and called it a bike lane. We got 100 miles or this. $10,000,000.00 for a few hundred gallons of paint and the spray truck. And in three years, I have seen exactly one, thats right, 1 person ridding their bike in it. Now take that money, and buy quad gates for railroad crossings at or near schools, and I would be a real happy camper.
Now here what I would like to see.
First, I would like a public education program with PSAs to run TV adds during prime time TV on all channels. Second, I wi***he public could be made aware that the railroads dont own the crossings, you, the taxpayers do. So if you dont like the way they are designed, or feel the protection they provide isnt good enough, you can make your local, county or state DOT change it. But most folks think its the railroad property, so they gripe at us.
Third, I would love to see someone light a fire under the tail ends of a city goverment and force them to prosocute the land owners who allow junk to pile up around crossings, fail to cut their grass, or trim their trees.
Forth, I want the private landowners, who sue the railroad for access to cross the railroad tracks to be held responsible for any and all saftey devices at that crossing, and should, by law, have to provide gates and lights at the bare minimum . Its their crossing, thats why its called a private crossing, and if they feel like the cost is too great, well, tough, besides, its their life being saved.
And lastly, I dont think a county or state should be allowed to use a simple traffic flow or pattern to decide a pair of cross bucks is sufficent to protect rural crossings. I wish it could become law that all rural crossings be gated at least. And that the federal goverment should pick up the tab. The root cause of the problem isnt the railroads, its the people who desing these things badly in the first place.
I dont want crossing in the first place, it allows cars to get in the way of my trains, and they get people killed. There is no really safe way to mix cars and trains, none at all. But you can go over or under my tracks, and no one dies. But it boils down to what your DOT is willing to spend its budget on, new, pretty rest stops on the freeways, or a underpass on a busy railroad track.
I wish you success in your quest to get gates at all of your crossings, and urge you to go see your senator, stand in front of his or her office till they get tired of looking at you and let you in. Tell them you dont want this to ever happen again. Offer them a soultion that works, go over or under, but not across train tracks. Raise a ruckus, as much as you can with out getting arrested. If that dosnt work, go to the TV investigative reporters, the Fox networks love this stuff. I want you to raise your voice, as loud as you can. Just make sure your talking to the people who are responsible for the problem, and are the only ones who can really fix it. I know your daughter meant everything to you, I feel the same about mine. Dont let your daughters death, or the death of her friend become just another pair of statistics. Do everything in your power to make the people who make the decisions to not install gates change their way of making these decisions. And if you approach it right, you will find a whole bunch of railroaders to support you.
And the offer of the big yellow crossing sign, and the post still stands. I can get it on a UPS truck day after tomorrow.
Ed

23 17 46 11

  • Member since
    April 2003
  • 305,205 posts
Posted by Anonymous on Friday, May 23, 2003 12:07 AM
Ed,

I'd like to add one more thing to my earlier reply, and then I am leaving this forum.

Thank you for extending your sympathy in the loss of my daughter. You said you have 3 daughters - I envy you, I had only one daughter. Don't let a day go by or let them leave your sight without saying "I love you". You said in your reply that I got to say goodbye to my daughter. Had I known when I last saw her that morning, it would be the last time I ever saw her alive, I would have told her so much more - how very much I loved her and was proud of her - how beautiful she was and how blessed I feel for having had the privilege of being her mother. Luckily, our last words were I love you.

When I said my goal is to make all crossings as safe as possible to prevent other families from suffering what I have, those "other" families was not directed only to those who have lost a loved one, but also to the train crews and their families, who suffer also.

Monarch
  • Member since
    October 2002
  • From: US
  • 2,358 posts
Posted by csxengineer98 on Thursday, May 22, 2003 11:44 PM
well mike
i see you can pull info up off the csx websight
but once agin... you didnt tell me what i wanted you to... i know my csxts statments ..all the stuff you just typed is what we believen in and fallow evey day we are on the proporty...
but once agin....
WHAT ARE YOU DOING OUTSIDE OF THIS FOURM.... SO PUT UP OR SHUT UP
and yes..your a wessle winning baby behind the computer...come face to face
AND DONT EVER CALL ME BROTHER YOU PILE OF CRAP..
YOU HAVNET EARNED THE RIGHT TO EVEN THINK THAT
csx engineer
"I AM the higher source" Keep the wheels on steel
  • Member since
    October 2002
  • From: US
  • 2,358 posts
Posted by csxengineer98 on Thursday, May 22, 2003 11:42 PM
well mike
i see you can pull info up off the csx websight
but once agin... you didnt tell me what i wanted you to... i know my csxts statments ..all the stuff you just typed is what we believen in and fallow evey day we are on the proporty...
but once agin....
WHAT ARE YOU DOING OUTSIDE OF THIS FOURM.... SO PUT UP OR SHUT UP
and yes..your a wessle winning baby behind the computer...come face to face
AND DONT EVER CALL ME BROTHER YOU PILE OF CRAP..
YOU HAVNET EARNED THE RIGHT TO EVEN THINK THAT
csx engineer
"I AM the higher source" Keep the wheels on steel
  • Member since
    October 2002
  • From: US
  • 2,358 posts
Posted by csxengineer98 on Thursday, May 22, 2003 11:31 PM
amen ken
this is going nowhere and is just p!ssing me off more and more.... from this point on...im done dealing with mike dickbreath
csx engineer
"I AM the higher source" Keep the wheels on steel
  • Member since
    April 2003
  • 305,205 posts
Posted by Anonymous on Thursday, May 22, 2003 10:27 PM
How dare you call me a liar. There are reams of information about this accident that you know nothing about.
  • Member since
    April 2003
  • 305,205 posts
Posted by Anonymous on Thursday, May 22, 2003 10:16 PM
I never meant to imply that I think the crews are not human or subject to those emotions. I can only imagine the horror of knowing you are going to hit a vehicle and not be able to do anything about it. For months after the accident I thought of the engineer and could only assume that he too was suffering.

I am not aware of the accident you are referring to, I have not read all of the posts, but if you were involved in a fatality then I truly do extend my sympathy.

I know only too well how to play the "what if" game - could the train have been a few seconds earlier or later, why didn't the girls take a different street to their destination and it goes on and on. I don't allow myself to do this very often, it only hurts but I guess there is a need to do it - and I don't know why.
My beef is not with the people who work for the railroads - though I will say there are some I have had contact with that I feel are very heartless - it's with the corporate owners - and their disregard for safety. Had there been another $150,000.00 spent at the crossing to install gates, my daughter would likely be alive today. You can't imagine how that feels. There are six crossings in my town. Soon after the accident I began to campaign for gates. It wasn't until two years later and the deaths of two more people that gates were finally considered and later installed. Don't get me wrong, I am truly grateful for the gates - as you know the FRA states that gates are 90% effective in preventing accidents at grade crossing. And thats where the what if starts again. If only there had been gates......

I have to disagree with you about Mike and Missouri - they are not in any way asking for or wanting motorists to "judge whether they can beat a train or not". Their goal is the same as mine - make crossings as safe as possible to prevent other families from suffering what we have.

Monarch
  • Member since
    April 2003
  • 305,205 posts
Posted by Anonymous on Thursday, May 22, 2003 10:01 PM
missouri,
You are a spoiled adolescent child. I find your behavior most shameful. Your babbling is designed to cause railroaders and fans to become upset. All for a childi***hrill. If this kind of behavior is fun for you, then you sir are truely a loser. You sir are something less then a man.
TIMOTHY ARGUBRIGHT
  • Member since
    April 2003
  • 305,205 posts
Posted by Anonymous on Thursday, May 22, 2003 8:12 PM
Just give us the state, month, year ED. It's not Top Secret is it?


A horse is a horse of course, of course, unless in your discussion of how they got Mr. Ed to talk, you cite actor Rail Road's claim that it was peanut butter stuck between Ed's cheek and gum. This is Mr. Road's stock answer. However, the enclosed video shows indisputable evidence that the "marionette theory" [i.e., Ed's handler pulled strings to make him talk] was at work at least some of the time. The video shows excerpts from a few episodes where the lighting and camera angle reveal the very visible nylon "bit" being pulled for each word Ed spoke. If you don't see the nylon under Ed's neck, then look for it running behind Ed, out of camera range. Some may claim that a nylon bit was needed in order to have Ed turn his head or perform some other movement without his trainer having to be in the camera shot, but the evidence is clear that the bit was also used when Ed was standing still and merely had to talk. Rail Road has every right not to reveal the whole truth about Ed's talking methods; it is the wonder and mystique of "how was it done?" that keeps the Mr. Ed television series alive. I do think peanut butter may have been used some of the time, but though I am a great admirer of Mr. Rail road, I thought you should know he was not telling you the whole truth
  • Member since
    April 2002
  • From: US
  • 446 posts
Posted by sooblue on Thursday, May 22, 2003 7:48 PM
So are you saying that you went to court and won or they settled out of court?

Also, Could you explain what happened to you? Were you working for Iowa Electric or a passerby?

$80,000 is slim pickens these days so either this happened a very long time ago or you were a nuisance case.

I'd say you were lucky in any case. Ground wires can come loose between trains and no one would know.

Sooblue
  • Member since
    December 2001
  • From: Denver / La Junta
  • 10,820 posts
Posted by mudchicken on Thursday, May 22, 2003 6:12 PM
I will second Ed's comments. (Maybe not quite so eloquently, but...) From one not in the operating craft, but who has experienced a grade crossing from the cab of a work train under my control, from umpteen accident investigations and from numerous accident surveys over 24 years. The aggitation is unwarranted and clearly uninformed.
PLEASE go away.
Mudchicken Nothing is worth taking the risk of losing a life over. Come home tonight in the same condition that you left home this morning in. Safety begins with ME.... cinscocom-west
  • Member since
    August 2002
  • 259 posts
Posted by Jackflash on Thursday, May 22, 2003 5:03 PM
Sick the snake on em Ed, I'm on your side, been
there before and it aint nice, hit a woman once
who was driving along side the train for about
four miles, then where the road merged with, and
crossed the tracks, she didnt stop, can you believe it ?
For everyone,,,I've been drug tested after a
crossing collission too. Grade crossing collissions do not require FRA mandated drug test
but sometimes the companys do it anyway, not always, but sometimes. Hang in there Ed, you got
more friends here than enemys. jackflash
  • Member since
    September 2002
  • From: North Carolina
  • 1,905 posts
Posted by csxns on Thursday, May 22, 2003 4:25 PM
J he said their where skid marks.Sounds like the driver is at fault.

Russell

  • Member since
    September 2002
  • From: North Carolina
  • 1,905 posts
Posted by csxns on Thursday, May 22, 2003 3:59 PM
Mike i have been around Railroads for all my life and every time i have been at a crossing drivers of cars and 18 wheelers have always tried to run the train.

Russell

  • Member since
    April 2003
  • 305,205 posts
Posted by Anonymous on Thursday, May 22, 2003 12:00 PM
To the Editor;
Is anyone monitoring these post anymore? I believe its time for Ed and his buddies to be told nicely that this is supposed to be a clean forum. I along with the others don't appreciate foul language, threats and name calling.
To Ed;
I just would love to know Ed a little more info on this accident. How far away did you see them if sight distance was so wonderful? And you were going how fast? Just doesn't add up. When and where Ed, thats all I need to know. Thanks
Mike
  • Member since
    March 2002
  • 9,265 posts
Posted by edblysard on Thursday, May 22, 2003 11:13 AM
You know, from you two's liar liar pants on fire responses to things you dont like, it has become apparent neither one of you have any real working knowledge of how a train works, and why it does the things it does. You both seem intent on nothing more than picking a fight, which is what I would expect from someone so childish.
Both the content and context of your statements sound so much like the arguments I hear between the grade school kids in my neighborhood thats its funny.
I have no intention of giving you any more facts, mike. You twist everything to fit you foolish viewpoint anyway, and why should I subject my friend to any harrassment from either or you two, he has enough pain to deal with as it is. Its clear you two jerks have no real compassion for anyone other than yourselves. The fact that you stated we dont have to do drug test is clear proof that neither one of you has any working knowledge of railroading. Any railroad that falls under FRA jurisdiction is required to perform random drug test, and at any grade crossing incident, reguardless if there are injuries or not, the federal law requires a drug test for the train crew. Of coures, the automobile driver is outside of the FRAs jurisdiction, so they dont have to suffer the humiliation of that, but we do. We even have to report to our superintendent if we are taking a prescription drug, say for alligeries, or blood pressure medication. But I though you two knew everything about everything there was to know about railroads? I found this forum about a year ago, and, untill you two twerps showed up, it was a fun place to unwind, exchanging info with fans and friends, but then the dipsy duo of mike and missouri showed up, and you two have succeded in destroying any fun this site once offered.
Missouri, you can call me a liar all you want, I have been called worse by much better people than you will ever be, and mike, well, hope you get the therapy you need.
Oh, and its clear from your response about movie times that the only movies you attend are those designed for lonely, social outcast type single men, you know the ones that start after dark, and have high fences around their parking lots so no one can see your car parked there.
Out where the humans live, most theaters have afternoon showings, Disney even requires that in their distribution contract, to insure the theaters show the movies at a early enough time so the little kids get to see their movies.
I did make one mistake, when I compaired missouri to the dinosaurs. At least the dinosaurs had sex with their own species.
You, on the other hand, must be a very lonely, frustrated person, your lacking in social graces and common sense must have caused any friends you once had to abandon you years ago.
I used to teach horse back riding to mentally challenged kids, and have had a much more meaningfull, pleasent and insightful conversations with an autistic than anything you two could offer.
But your psychosis runs so deep that I doubt either one of you even realize how utterly mad you both sound. And like the autistic, neither one of you will ever know how sick you really are, trapped in you tiny little world of hate and misconception. I would pity you both for your lack of a real life, but I suspect it would be a waste, just like any response to your drivel here has been.
The fact that neither one of you can spell or write beyond what my 5th grader can is glaring proof of your inability to express a intelligent thought in a manner that could have gained you support, and your repetive inability to admit that anyone else who dosnt hop on your bandwagon of condemination of railroads may have a valid point is clear and shining proof of you childish viewpoint. If someone dosnt agree 100% with your nonsense, then you call them names and threaten them, sorta like the crap a impotent little bully would do.
And like most bullies I have met, your lives have been so deviod of anything good, and so lacking in rewarding attention, that you have had to resort to picking fights to get any attention at all.
I intend to treat you like I treat all little bullies, by ignoring you. If no one responses to your silly little nonsense, you will not have the opportunity to pick a fight with them.

Have a safe and pleasent day.

23 17 46 11

  • Member since
    June 2001
  • From: US
  • 13,488 posts
Posted by Mookie on Thursday, May 22, 2003 9:52 AM
I am going to get out of your car right now. Have a nice trip.

Jen

She who has no signature! cinscocom-tmw

  • Member since
    April 2003
  • 305,205 posts
Posted by Anonymous on Thursday, May 22, 2003 9:39 AM
Getting out of your vehicle to look for a train? Kind of goes above and beyond reasonable/ordinary care. However maintaining PROPER sight distance such that you can see a train PRIOR to entering the Non-recovery zone, that sounds more like reasonable/ordinary care. However we have a hard time to honestly look at a company as a person as required by court of law.

Join our Community!

Our community is FREE to join. To participate you must either login or register for an account.

Search the Community

Newsletter Sign-Up

By signing up you may also receive occasional reader surveys and special offers from Trains magazine.Please view our privacy policy