Brightline Locomotive Camera
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3llAuBfNUf4
News Reporting:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LU5k77gq4zU
Criminal negligence on the vehicle operator.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
Wait just a minute. High speed with left-hand running. Evidently a quiet zone, with no flashing ditch lights until the horn sounds. But didn't quiet zones for high speeds require FOUR-QUADRANT GATES?
For just the reason we see in this accident??
I am not deceived by any BS about 'the freight train having just passed'. It had cleared far enough to make the sightlines to and from the oncoming train very clear; the driver evidently had practiced cutting through the corner between the curbing and the end of the long gate.
I wonder if they can add an extension to those gates that continues them at least a couple of feet over the curb, so even cutting across some grass won't let you on the crossing. If not, there might be some relatively cheap way to drop a short gate or barrier to plug how this driver, and others shown in the news footage, get through.
At least the driver survived.
There's gotta be a FloridaMan joke in here somewhere......
Greetings from Alberta
-an Articulate Malcontent
SD70DudeThere's gotta be a FloridaMan joke in here somewhere......
Forget the "FloridaMan" stuff, there's dummies all over, no state has a monopoly on them.
I was watching a railfan video not long ago filmed in New Jersey. The lights were flashing, the bells were ringing, the gates were down, and the railfan shooting the video yelled at a driver cheating the gates (who's window was down) "HEY MAN, THERE'S A TRAIN COMING!"
The driver acknowledged the warning with a "#### YOU!"
I heard the railfan muttering "What are you gonna do..."
May be some sunshine factor to this ..
https://www.tampabay.com/news/florida/2022/02/16/after-57-deaths-brightline-in-florida-pleads-with-people-to-stop-dangerous-crossings/
"The AP analysis shows that Brightline averages about one death for every 35,000 miles its trains travel, three times worse than the next mid-size or major railroad. According to police reports examined by the AP, investigators determined most of those killed have been suicides, drivers maneuvering around crossing barriers or pedestrians who were intoxicated, mentally ill or trying to beat the trains.
Among railroads that have logged at least 1 million miles over the last five years, central Florida’s SunRail has the second-worst death rate, averaging one for every 108,000 train miles. More than 800 people die nationally each year from train strikes, according to Federal Railroad Administration records."
rdamon According to police reports examined by the AP, investigators determined most of those killed have been suicides, drivers maneuvering around crossing barriers or pedestrians who were intoxicated, mentally ill or trying to beat the trains.
That being the case it seems a bit unfair to say "Florida's SunRail has the second-worst death rate." It makes it appear to be SunRail's fault just for existing. Unless that's the whole idea.
Flintlock76 rdamon According to police reports examined by the AP, investigators determined most of those killed have been suicides, drivers maneuvering around crossing barriers or pedestrians who were intoxicated, mentally ill or trying to beat the trains. That being the case it seems a bit unfair to say "Florida's SunRail has the second-worst death rate." It makes it appear to be SunRail's fault just for existing. Unless that's the whole idea.
I would venture to say that Florida is the Death State. Where millions of people come to die. I know my father did.
BaltACDI would venture to say that Florida is the Death State. Where millions of people come to die. I know my father did.
There's a gentler version of that:
"God's Waiting Room."
OvermodI wonder if they can add an extension to those gates that continues them at least a couple of feet over the curb, so even cutting across some grass won't let you on the crossing. If not, there might be some relatively cheap way to drop a short gate or barrier to plug how this driver, and others shown in the news footage, get through.
Don't all quiet crossings have a curb that stops a car from going left around the gate? At least all of them in my part of the country do.
I did not see a curb at this crossing (although it may be there and I couldn't see it). Is this crossing a quiet zone?
I think you're right -- make the crossing arm long enough that the car cannot get around it.
York1 John
There is a curb, and to me it's clearly visible in the accident video; part of my reason for saying the driver had 'experience' cutting the crossing was how closely he came to that curb without hitting it (which would have been visible as a lurch or bump in his vehicle's dynamics).
What you are talking about is a median between the two travel directions, starting a good way back from the intersection and ending as close to the actual required rail equipment clearance as possible, high enough that even 4x4s and the like can't get over it. Florida is famous, though, for having many areas where streets near grade run very closely parallel to tracks (in some cases, on both sides of a raised ballast or berm) and any potential center barrier arrangements would be too short to matter. Here of course the entire intrusion onto the crossing was 'backward' in the opposite travel lane, so no fixed arrangements that wouldn't have the effect of blocking traffic coming off the crossing ... which no one sane would ever try to impede! ... could have been provided. (He starts angling over once he gets part way across the freight's track, but as at Ashland you couldn't put effective barriers between the two tracks, or in part of the gauge, without violating Federal law and being worse than the problem to boot.)
Other views show the alignment between the left-side curb and the end of the gate. You need a small car to pass obliquely between the gate and the 'apex' of the curved curb, but as you can see in the videos it is possible.
It might be possible with some bracketing and added torsional stiffness against aerodynamic effects to put an angled extension end on that long gate tip, and perhaps arrange for it to land into a self-aligning bracket on the grass side to make it more resistant to bending or breaking if someone hits it in the 'track' direction while allowing easy exit from the crossing if the gates should be down.
The point remains, though, that a four-quadrant arrangement, with the 'exiting' pair lagging actuation to allow late exit if people are dumb and there is traffic, ought to be necessary if lights, bell, horn etc. is to be avoided OR if high speeds are expected. Not to say 'I told you so' but if there had been four-quadrant gating at that intersection, this accident could not have happened -- at least, not this facilely.
I concluded it was in a quiet zone from the absence of horn signals until the last moment before impact, when almost indignantly the crew sounds a single short blast, as if they couldn't believe what they were seeing until it was almost too late. Further confirmation is that the ditch lights start alternately flashing, as they do for 30 seconds when the horn is sounded, but I don't see them alternating before that point. I do not think I hear the freight engines at the beginning blowing their horns, either, but someone with better speakers and ears than I have can check the audio. If there are 'wayside horns' in any part of the track traversed in the clip, I do not hear them (which of course is supposed to be part of the point).
OvermodWhat you are talking about is a median between the two travel directions, starting a good way back from the intersection and ending as close to the actual required rail equipment clearance as possible, high enough that even 4x4s and the like can't get over it.
Yes, that's what I meant. It's pretty obvious he knew to angle his car to miss the gate. He's probably done this before. I've got to believe with four or five accidents in the recent past, they will have to rethink the approaches to the crossing to get a median in there.
My town had to move the approaching street back a ways to get room for the median. Of course, there weren't any businesses or houses in the way. You can barely make it out, but they even put in short gates across the sidewalks:
Off topic but stupid does not stop at RR crossings. Draw bridges as well.
Alarming Video Shows Florida Drawbridge Opening With Honda Accord Still On It (msn.com)
blue streak 1Off topic but stupid does not stop at RR crossings. Draw bridges as well. Alarming Video Shows Florida Drawbridge Opening With Honda Accord Still On It (msn.com)
Article also notes that a 79 YO woman walking her bike across a drawbridge in West Palm Beach had the bridge open before she had completely transversed the bridge making her fall to her death on the hard surface beneath the end of the bridge.
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