Love the local journalist take here…These gangsta Brightline trains are out of control here in Miami jumping off of tracks and assulting and killing random people…[soapbox]
WPTV News | West Palm Beach Florida
Published on Jan 17, 2018
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The Bicyclist STRUCK AND KILLED by a Brightline train Wedn
They are too stupid for low speed rail! I want Boynton Beach Closed until they can accept that trains operate where there are lights and gates across the highways.
If Brightline ever operates at High Speeds (150 mph +) crossing separation will have to happen - the local populace is too stupid to handle it at grade crossings.
Accidents happen in Europe too. In 2016 it were about 140 accidents with about 30 fatalities on DB track in Germany alone.
On lines with speeds above 100 mph grade crossings are forbidden.
In a representative survey with 2,000 peoples in Germany 25% thought the red blinking light has the same meaning as yellow on a traffic light.
Regards, Volker
Maybe Brightline has to put up some of these.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGhFHKtDhns
Aside from that, you can’t fix stupid.
Noise pollution!
That stretch of trackage has a speed limit of 79 MPH, which for passenger trains isn’t uncommon.
The major frustration is the NIMBY-backed politicians trying to make something out of nothing.
I have the impression that the number of strikes at that location was reduced considerably while that warning was there (it was taken down many years ago).
Since. as I recall, that warning was put in place by a private individual, if the good people of Boynton Beach are so concerned about the inabilty of some of their residents to recognize the standard warnings as being warnings of danger, perhaps said good citizens should devise, at their own expense, a warning system that their people would recognize as such?
The news reports on the latest two fatalities indicate that the deceased had gone under/around the gates. Since they are pedestrians, four-quadrant gates will have no effect.
I don’t know how to combat that, and I’m sure the railroad is equally perplexed.
Nobody wants to wait for a mere minute. Just sixty seconds and the train will be nothing but a memory. But, no, they can’t wait.
All these politicians (and other critics) need to go sit at a crossing for a while and watch people ignore the existing warning signals.
Many of the other rail fatalities in Florida over the past few years appear to have been suicides. It’s really hard to combat that in the moment.
That is an interesting interpretation. I could see where some might think the blinking red at a grade crossing means that same as a blinking red at a traffic signal. In the U.S. that would mean stop and proceed if clear to do so, just like a stop sign. Solid yellow on a traffic signal is advance warning that it will soon change to red. Blinking yellow at a traffic signal means yield, so no stop is required unless there is opposing traffic.
If drivers mistake grade crossing signals as meaning stop and proceed if it is clear to do so, that leaves it up to the driver to determine how close the train has to be in order for it not to be clear to cross. Surveys here show that a large percentage of drivers believe that this is the meaning of flashing lights at grade crossings. They believe the signals are advisory rather than regulatory; the same as crossbucks at passive crossings.
Time and again, people here have been warned about the significance of the crossing gates and lights where TRAX (the UTA local transit) crosses streets–and still occasionally someone is hit. I have no statistics in my mind. The warnings include the statement that as long as the lights are flashing the crossing belongs to TRAX, not to the traffic on the street or sidewalk. It is not just the people in Boynton Beach who are not aware. At least, the local politicians are not as irrational as those mentioned.
I believe that British Rail has miles of fencing on there right of ways. Funny people will stop for red traffic light but not a blinking railroad crossing with gates?
Does Sen W. Nelson also want road traffic stopped in Miami until the latest pedestrian fatality is thoroughly investigated? Bring in the horses.
If there’s a horizontal bar with red and white stripes blocking your way, maybe that’s an indication that you shouldn’t go past it?
I know, there are crossings without gates, but with lights - they exist in my old home town. But the crossings in question in these two fatalities had gates.
What gets me is that if a pedestrian ignored a red light at a street intersection and got hit, no one would blame the truck driver who hit him…
In some instances, it may possible for the truck driver to swerve and avoid hitting the pedestrian. But, at a railroad crossing…
Another thought: would the Boynton Beach city fathers consider drafting people to stand at the Brightline crossings to warn pedestrians not to try to cross the tracks when the gates are down? I doubt that an
That would imply that the incidents aren’t the fault of the railroad, which is clearly not on their agenda.
The point with the truck is that people would blame a pedestrian for walking out in front of it, but if they walk out in front of the train, it’s the train’s fault…
Karma at it’s best.
Those who deserve shall receive.
This is the same state that has road signs that say "HILL BLOCKS VIEW". I laughed for five miles after passing those signs.
So if the city wants more safety-- install a coordinated traffic signal saying walk until crossing activated then flashes "don’t walk $1000 fine " if any of these crossing already have traffic ligh signal coordination then just cost of wiring and signs.
Our state has similar goofy signs: “Limited sight distance ahead”. You don’t say.
Florida and Utah are not the only areas that seem to have the market cornered on pedestrian stupidity; where trains, railroads and commuter trains are a part of the picture.
Sometime back, around here there was a YouTube video of a Chicago Metra station that had three tracks through the station; the outer tracks were each on platforms and the center track was a ‘passing track’. At at least one end of the station there was a pedestrian crosswalk across all three tracks. It of course had the appropriate warning signs about ‘watching for the trains’.
I think i remember that the scenario was computers racing to cross the tracks to get to the parking lot after deboarding from their commuter train, and failed to see the express, at speed on the center track, and the result was at least one pedestrian was hit by that express train.
Probably, CSHaveRR (CARL ) can clear up my memories of that video. He may even know when and how it happened? It seems that when people who have their own agenda and needs tend to throw all caution to the winds while thinking their problem insulates them from normal cautions.