Now even persons on bicycles are ignoring crossing signals.
http://www.goerie.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20120615/APN/1206150613
My condolences to the engineer and the bicyclist’s family.
Question: Were earphones involved?
What a pointless and early death.
Pointless is right. A blatant disregard of the warning.
I was able to Google map the crossing and then look at it. Well-marked, with overhead flashers. But the gate only covers one lane, like most crossings and it doesn’t have a barrier between lanes to keep folks from going around. When I was young, most gated crossings (on the C&NW Galena Division) covered lanes in both directions on both sides of the crossing. Those manned crossings were replaced with automatic ones covering only one direction on a side. Perhaps the old system (looked like it was paid for by the railroad then) was better (not necessarily the manned part)?
By the way, Mr. Schlimm,
Thanks for your kind email the other day. We are not alone! lol
I would like to echo NKP guy’s condolences to both the crew and the families (both crew’s and the bicyclist’s) as well as the authorities who had to deal with the aftermath.
Schlimm: why “not necessarily the manned part”? At critical/problematic crossings, a live “crossing guard” might be worth the expense. I could see 3 advantages off hand:
(1) deterrent (some people less likely to do stupid & illegal acts when officials are watchingg):
(2) enforcement (taking down plate numbers of offenders who otherwise “get away with it”, in a possibly more reliable manner than photo-enforcement); and
(3) safety (quicker reporting of any signal malfunctions, and observing problems in advance, such as a truck getting stuck or call stalling out while crossing legally, trespassers down the line, etc.).
Why not?
As i understand it (and I am really not sure where I read this long ago) when many crossings were manned, it was in the era when the railroads employed huge numbers of workers. Older and disabled workers were supposedly given jobs like manning crossing towers. I don’t think that is feasible today.
As sad as such incidents are - the title is misleading! It wasn´t AMTRAK, that killed the poor guy, it was himself by crossing the tracks while a train was approaching.
For me, choosing a title like that is bad journalism, because it puts all the blame on the train or the crew, who are probably traumatized for the rest of their lives.
As long as there are railroads, people have been neglecting the dangers of grade crossings - even protected ones. My father used to skip school now and then to spend a day with the crew of a crossing tower. That was in the 1930´s. He remembers a number of incidents, where the gates had to be raised again, because a farmer tried to run them with his team of horses and got caught on the tracks.
The only way to increase safety is to eliminate grade crossing and build over- or underpasses. When the German Federal Railway introduced the first high speed trains in the early 1970´s, service could start only after all grade crossings had been removed.
Manned grade crossings would be an expensive option and probably wouldn’t achieve the goals suggested by Dragoman:
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Deterrence: Before a raised center strip was installed, I would periodically see drivers going around lowered crossing gates at Broadway Ave in Blue Island, which is still a manned crossing.
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Enforcement: The watchman is about 20 feet above ground level and set back from the roadway, making recording of plate numbers difficult at best.
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Safety: Mixed results here.
As far as expense, it requires at least four watchmen to man a grade crossing on a 24-hour basis, which may be feasible in a junction situation like Broadway Ave in Blue Island or downtown Hammond IN in past years but not in most locations.
Does anyone have figures of pedestrians and car incidents from past years say 2005 - on ? . It certainly seems that this year has been especially bad ??
Transportation fatal and injury accidents have been trending downward since 1960. According to the 2010 edition of National Transportation Statistics, 7,210 pedestrians and 490 pedal cyclists were killed in highway related accidents in 1960. In the same year 1,421 people lost their lives in railroad grade crossing incidents. For 1980 the numbers were 8,070 pedestrians, 693 pedal cyclists, and 833 railroad grade incidents. For 2000 the numbers were 4,763 pedestrians, 693 pedal cyclists, and 425 railroad grade incidents. In 2009, which is the latest year with good numbers, the numbers were 4,092 pedestrians, 630 pedal cyclists, and 249 railroad grade incidents.
Only injuries incurred in railroad grade crossing incidents are available for 1960, when 3,367 people were injured at grade crossings. The first year showing injured persons for all three categories is 1990, when 104,805 pedestrians and 74,953 pedal cyclists were injured. During the same year 2,407 people were injured in railroad grade crossing incidents. In 2000 the numbers were 77,625 pedestrians, 51,160 pedal cyclists, and 1,219 rail road grade crossing incidents. In 2009 the numbers were 59,000 pedestrians, 51,000 pedal cyclists, and 741 railroad grade crossing incidents. In 2009 DOT began to round the numbers to the nearest thousandths.
These statistics were updated in April 2012. It takes the government approximately two to three years to gather the relevant data (just imagine all the reporting locations that they have to survey), confirm its authenticity through audits, put it into a valid data base, and analyze it. Whether this year is witnessing an abnormal number of transportation related fatalities and injuries will not be known until 2014 or thereafter. Nevertheless, although this year may see a spike in the numbers, the downward trend in fatal and serious injury transportation accidents is likely to continue.
If an injured person dies within a year of an accident, the
Thanks for digging up the stats. In addition to those numbers, I wonder if the number of trains running and crossings used to be higher 25-50 years ago.
According to the American Association of Railroads (AAR), the U.S. had 219,000 at grade railroad crossings in 2008, of which 136,041 were public roads. Of these 42,301 had gates, 22,037 had flashing lights, 1,196 had highway traffic signals, wigwags, and/or bells. The remainder were unprotected. I could not find any data showing the reduction in the number of grade crossings, although I am sure that it is available and could be found with a bit more digging. However, the reduction in U.S. railroad mileage suggests that there has been a corresponding reduction in the number of grade crossings.
According to AAR, as well as Rand McNally, railroad mileage in the U.S. peaked at 254,000 miles in 1916. By 1950 the mileage was down to 223,800 miles. By 2000 it was 144,500 miles and as of the end of 2008 (last good numbers) it was 140,000. These are track miles; route miles are fewer.
According to AAR, corroborated by DOT, grade crossing collisions fell 81% between 1980 and 2008. Injuries fell 79% and fatalities dropped 69%. I did not reconcile these number with my previous data, but they seem comparable.
All forms of travel in the United States have become safer since 1960, which appears to be the first year that the feds got serious about collecting safety data. In 1960, for example, there were 4.40 highway fatalities per 100 million vehicle miles. By 2008 the number had dropped to 1.95. There has been a corresponding drop in all types of injuries, including serious injuries. The drop cuts across all modes of transportation, i.e. air, rail, water, etc. Also, within mode, there are significant differences. For example, travelling on an interstate highway is considerably safer than driving on a country lane. Driving during the day is safer than driving at night. And certain days of the week are safer than others.
In the NY City area there have been a poponderance of pedestrian deaths. One, as reported, seems to be suicides; another is use of headphones while walking or jogging or whatever, closes off the sound of approaching traffic; and third seems to be just plain not playing it safe either by darting in front of train or stepping behind a train into the path of another. At least that is how I have read news reports from incidents on NJT, MNRR, LIRR, Amtrak, and even the subways. But that’s my read not neccessarily official statistics.
Another sensless death. My condolences to the train crew, and emergency workers who had to deal with the results. I have seen it too often, people running the lights, crossing the tracks. They think that they will not get hit. As pointed out by someone else, were headphones involved? In Sydney,NSW the number of pedestrians hit by cars have gone up by a large number. Better education to the public on what the worst case scenario is, bigger fines to those who are caught? More cameras at level crossings activated when the lights and gates start to operate?
And another yesterday ( wed )
and another point of view
http://www.columbian.com/news/2012/jun/27/woman-dies-after-being-struck-amtrak-train-woodlan/
another viewpoint
Now Capitol corridor has an incident today ----
from their website
Train 528 is delayed between Hayward and Oakland Coliseum a Trespasser Incident.
Capitol corridor had another incident today ( fri )
Train 532 is delayed 48 minutes between Suisun & Davis due to road vehicle removed from tracks
would be interesting to get details!!!
now we have another tractor trailer go in front of the Texas Eagle in Texas.
Interesting to read that it was somehow the trains fault that the truck was on the crossing in the first place. The article infers that rail should give way to road.