I’ve seen a few posts lately about train v. car accidents where the car’s driver is at fault for going around gates. However, this CBC news article makes you stop and wonder… The people killed did not drive through a crossing, they were pushed !!!
Read it for yourself…
CBC – A**n Ontario couple is dead and a Milton (Ontario) man faces impaired and dangerous driving counts after a car slammed into another vehicle at a level crossing, causing the second vehicle to roll in front of an oncoming train.
The suspect faces five charges, including impaired driving causing death.
A man, 66, and his 65-year-old wife were killed when their vehicle came to rest in the path of an oncoming GO Train around 7:30 p.m. at a crossing on Trafalgar Road, north of Derry Road, west of Toronto. (Although the article doesn’t give the date, I am presuming the accident happened on 19 July 2007 since I saw it posted on 20 July)
Sgt. Peter Payne, of Halton police, told CBC News a vehicle on the opposite side of the crossing was also struck.
The dead couple is from Rockwood, near Guelph (Ontario). Their identities are not being released at the request of family.
The man who has been charged is under police guard in hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, police said.
Very sad, and very bad, Timothy. Many years ago, while on a Defensive Driving Course (in the Canadian Forces, those who held DND 404’s, or driving licenses for military pattern vehicles were required to have a DDC every five years) I was taught that defensive drivers place their cars in “park” and engage the parking brake while stopped at intersections and at level crossings…for just that reason. It is especially critical when turning left at intersections and having your wheels partially turned in advance. If struck from behind, in which direction would you roll? Into oncoming traffic.
I wonder what the going rate is for all those charges. In Canada, sentences are concurrent, so no totaling up the time like they do down south. Then, with credit for any pre-trial jail time at the rate of two for one, plus eligibility for parole, I figure this guy will serve between 18-22 months. Oh wait, it’s a first offense (?), so half that. We don’t really hit 'em until they have done it twice again. [:(!]
I work for the railway and when I stop at a railway crossing I always stop way back, not only to be clear should a derailment occur, but for the exact reason that this incident caused. Undoubtedly there is always some guy that will go around me and park as close to the gate as he possibly can.
I was waiting at a railroad crossing Friday morning. I was at the front of the line and the crossing gates had been done for about fifteen minutes. The yahoo behind me decided that since the train was just creeping toward the crossing he would have time enough to get through. He came out from behind me, wove his way around the gates and got across, just in time to be nabbed by a local cop turning out of a side street and had seen the whole thing. He immediatly pulled the vehicle over and wrote the driver up for illegally crossing a rr crossing, reckless endangerment and several other charges. How do I know this? I have a police band two way radio in my car. I was loving every minute of it.
The old saying " There’s never a cop around when you need one " comes to mind. I just love it when these idiot drivers pull a stunt not realizing there’s a cop around.
I read about the accident in the paper on Friday. Our drunk driving laws in Ontario kind of suck. You don’t do any real jail time until your third offence most of the time. I would like to see a mandatory 25 year sentence with no parole if you hurt or kill somebody with your stupidity.
That’s happened a couple of times here in the states. If you remember the one about the woman sitting at the crossing in the mourning fog and a truck struck her from behind. Pushed her into the train and her car got stuck under a box car and got dragged a few miles down the tracks. They had the 911 tape of her cell call screaming for help. I can’t beleive she lived after seeing what her car looked like.
The hood and headlights peaking out from under the semitrailer, belong to my brothers car.
The only reasion he wasn’t decapatated, was that the door post that is attached to the sholder belt, was sheared off at just the right time when jolt of the accadent caused him to flop down over the passenger seat.
Down here the charge would have been two counts of vehicular homicide, and the guilty driver’s sobriety, or lack thereof, wouldn’t even enter into it. (The DUI charges would have been separate - just a little more icing on the cake.)
Jeffrey-Wimberly, aren’t you an emergency responder? That’s authorized possession/use of emergency band communications equipment, IIRC.
If the punishment were really made to fit the crime, the guilty driver would be locked in a junk car, left on the tracks in a place where flying debris wouldn’t endanger innocent bystanders and punted into eternity by a low-flying diesel. (Hard-nosed of me? You’re absolutely right.)
I would like to underwrite selector’s comments about the dangers of being pushed into oncoming traffic if struck from behind while preparing to execute a left turn. When I was stationed in Southern California with the Air Force in the late-'60s a member of the California Highway Patrol - some way or another he was related to our C.O. - would periodically come out to our Commander’s Call and give a traffic safety briefing. On one occasion, I remember, he told about a recent investigation of a traffic accident where multiple fatalities had occurred; a vehicle had been struck from behind and, because his wheels were cramped to the left, pushed into the path of oncoming traffic. This - turning one’s wheels before physically executing your turn - was, it was pointed out, against the California traffic code and the driver of the struck car who had, apparently survived this accident, was considered to be contributory to the second accident in which the fatalities had occurred.
I never forget this and even today, almost forty years later, I always keep my wheels trained straight ahead at intersections until oncoming traffic clears and I acknowledged the wisdom of my ways twelve years ago next month when I got rear-ended at an intersection and pushed about fifteen feet forward; this was not a particularly violent collision to be sure but had my wheels been turned I would have become part of a Brown radiator.
There was an incident in Ontario Canada a few years back where a woman and her 2 boys were stopped at Hailey Station near Cobden. Her car was struck from behind while she was waiting at a crossing with the warning lights activated and pushed in front of an oncoming train. She managed to free herself and 2 boys from the car before the train hit the car. Unfortunately when the train hit the car it ramed into one of the boys and he susquently lost a limb. if anyone knows the story with more facual detail please add.
Was it the one in the middle of the S (by the turnoff to Haley Station), or closer to Cobden? My uncle was a long time member of the Copden VFD, I can ask him next time I see him. That area is bad for accidents, with 5 level crossing between Haley and Pembroke.
Ever visted Colin Churcher’s web site at (this one is about wrecks in the Ottawa area) http://www.railways.incanada.net/circle/Wrecks.html
I recognized this one right away,“August 28, 1930 - Canadian Pacific - Pembroke”, by the milepost marker: right behind my parent’s house. It (the house) wouldn’t be built for about 25 years at that time. I found that very interesting.
Here in the US scanners are legal, anyone can have one. Radios that can transmit on said frequencies, another rule entirely! Much like owning a radar detector (legal in most states). You can even own one in Virginia, you just can’t USE it.
Now, as for listening in on classified, military frequencies, and such as that, now THAT’S banned for obvious security reasons.
Most folks I know who own scanners have local police, fire, EMS, and RR frequencies programmed in.
Brad
PS, I put in a long post on another train vs. car thread, too long to re-type here.
Back in the early days, a law was passed in the US which said that anyone could own a receiver for any radio frequency. The idea was that radio was a communications medium, and that any restriction was one of those “freedom of speech” things. To my knowledge, that law is still on the books, even though the frequencies are used for lots of things other than communications. Laws which ban radar detectors have to be carefully crafted to get around the Federal statute. Constitutionally, Federal laws trump State laws.
Any communications which need to be secure are encrypted, or “scrambled,” so that the casual listener can’t understand what’s going on. In those cases, private use of devices to decrypt the signals could be banned.
Yeah, it’s kind of a stretch to say that your police radar detector is protected by “freedom of speech,” but then again, so is topless dancing. To quote Sir Walter Scott, “what a tangled web we weave…”
About a week ago there was a similar accident on the Trans-Canada Hwy. in Manitoba where a semi was stopped at a level crossing and another semi drove into the back of him. Witnesses said the brake lights on the second semi didn’t come on. (Did the driver fall asleep?) Both rigs burst into flames and the second driver was killed. There wasn’t much left of either rig in the news footage.
What Selector says about keeping your wheels straight when waiting to make a left turn is very good advice. Years ago one of my co-workers showed up to conduct our monthly safety meeting wearing a neck brace. After receiving a good ribbing from the crowd, he explained that he was rear-ended the previous evening waiting to make a left turn. Fortunately, he had his wheels straight and the only injury he received was whiplash. He hammered home to the group that had he had his wheels turned, he would have been in the hospital instead of conducting the meeting. Since then I’ve made a point of keeping my wheels straight when waiting to make a left turn.
Another lesson I learned the hard way was to leave my wheels straight when I park in a parking lot. Years ago I parked my car and there were no other vehicles near me. When I returned to my car, there were vehicles parked on both sides of me. I put it in reverse, turned to look out the back window and pushed the accellerator. A split second later, as I was gouging out the side of the car parked on my right, I realised that I had left the wheels turned to the left. Now I always straighten out my wheels when parking. I guess some lessons have to be learned the hard way.
In Canada, scanners are legal (there may be issues regarding usage in a motor vehicle), and if it is broadcast, you can intercept and listen to it. Including trunk systems that make it hard for old receivers to tune into. And cell phones, fair game. The clerk at RadioShack may say otherwise, but what do they know?
If you are concerned about security, use a land line. The cops will even call someone in a cruiser and request he call back with a land line for that very purpose, because they know people are listening, and some of them have ulterior motives.
You wouldn’t believe how many people will use a cordless phone, and give out all manner of personal info, like credit card details, SINs, etc., without even thinking about it. (That’s why I have a scrambled cordless phone…)
I should dig out my old Regency scanner. Anyone know the frequencies the Ottawa Central uses, especially in the Walkley Yard?
I have two scanners and really have a lot of fun listening to people. One is a base unit that sits beside my computer in the computer room, yes its on. The other is a portable I use for rail fanning. If it has a antenna I can pick it up. That includes Police, Fire, Ambulance, airplanes, boats, cell phones, pagers, walkie talkies, cordless phones, drive through windows at restaurants and even BABY MONITORS. Where do most people keep their baby monitors? Thats right, the bedroom, lol.