I am guessing, I don’t know, but I’m guessing at the speed the commuter train was going, having taken no apparent action to slow down and/or contact the MofW forces, that the crew on the train is in trouble and not the driver of the front end loader. Most advance warning boards I know of are set from 1 1/2 miles to 2 miles in advance of the stop board.
I say that thinking that its common practice to have control of your train, knowing that you have sufficient time and distance to stop if attempts to contact the flagman and/or person holding the permit are unsuccessful.
Of course, there’s always the chance that the MofW gang set up before their time started and were in the wrong.
Or the crew got permission by the stopboards and the loader fouled the tracks (When it shouldn’t have). even if it wasn’t the correct time - if you see those stopboards - you STOP (or at least try).
That first crossing appers to only be a pedestrian crossing. You will notice it is a very small crossing, so they probably are only required to give a toot and ring the bell.
As for the red flag, just by this video you can’t tell who is at fault.
As for watch a watchman, there wouldn’t be one in a Rule 42 (CROR). The trains would call the foreman in charge of the work area and get his permission to come through his limits. The foreman would radio to everyone to clear the tracks and then give permission for the train to come through his limits.
The trains cannot pass the red flegs until they receive permission. Once the trains get permission by the flags with or without restrictions from the foreman, they can fly right by that red flag and through that work limit at track speed.
**CROR Rule 42 is the rule used to protect planned track work on main line trackage. The blelow link is the CN rule book, but the Rule 42 on CN and CP would be the same. Check out pages 25 and 26.
I posted above that somebody made a comment to the video that mentioned Vancouver’s West Coast Express commuter service. I don’t know if that is correct or not, but it is the only thing I have found that mentioned a railroad.
Amtrak and other such passenger trains don’t weigh a fraction of what a freight train normally does. The brakes on these trains have greater stopping power than that of a freight train. So take these two things into account. And of course the more lite weight a locomotive is the more it would be prone to jumping up after hitting something like a piece of track equioment. Take a look around on youtube and you’ll find videos of trains hitting large objects. Upon impact they do rock and bounce, and sometimes they do derail.
I saw that to that they were Operation Life Saver units. Also did you see if you pay close attention that the third unit is also a OLS unit. That means all of them are OLS. Why didn’t it happen to some other engine if you know what I mean.