Unfortunately, I think they realize that a good percentage of morons think anything they see on tv is gospel truth. I have never seen a train stop to look at a car unless the car is wedged under the cowcatcher.
Hi Ed,
I grew up 200’ away from that SOO intersection in MPLS. One time I saw a red VW bug try to beat out a east bound frieght coming out of Shoreham.
the train was being helped up the hill by two pushers but it wasn’t going slow by any means.
the bug almost made it by, the fa unit just clipped the back of the bug and it went end over end for 100’ roughly. The driver didn’t even get scrached. In fact he climbed out of his upside down car through a window and ran towards the train shakeing his fist at it. The train didn’t stop for, I don’t know, maybe 1/4 mile.
That driver was SOO lucky and all he could think of was shakeing his fist because he didn’t make it and got hit. You know, I lived there for 19 years and I can’t remember any other accidents at that intersection even though Central has always been a buisy street.
Mike
I may never know but the experience sure left a lasting impression.
The railroad was stupid for letting GM make the commercial anyway.Remember the one about the Ford truck entering a tunnel and a Santa Fe F unit leading a train entering the other end.
Operation Lifesaver has been quite sucessful in getting similar ads pulled off the air, I don’t understand the nincompoops who think this kind of thing is going to help sell vehicles, And I don’t know why they haven"t learned the error of their ways yet either. Yes, I’m sure that some drunks and probably some kids will attempt this stunt, and we all know what the results will probably be.
I think that the “common sense factor” is sadly lacking in todays society, but that’s a whole different story.
I’ve seen that add in real life. It wasn’t for a caddy though it was for a string of fire engines and the crossing was at Central ave. in NE Mpls. and the rail road was the SOO LINE. I’ve also seen the SOO break apart trains more than once at that intersection. Some days those trains would roar in and out of Shorham, other times It would take twenty min. to get a train past.
I saw that commercial last night I thought it kind of classy and diffrent. If anyone is influenced by that commercial to try to beat out a train DO WE REALY WANT THAT PERSON ON THE ROAD, let him be a bug spot on the front of an engine.
I’ll be willing to provide a rubber stamp to the engineers so they can mark the side of thier engines. Oh I know it’s harmfull to the psyches of the engineers to nail a car so I propose that they are trained to handle that situation and that they have a handy supply of Prosac for thier continued well being.
My British friend would often remark, ‘Natural Selection at Work.’ when he observed something remarkably stupid as a car trying to beat a train.
Regards. - Ed
mike… reminds me of the time when I was a kid and the SOO still ran the passenger train up to Minneapolis twice a day from Chicago. We were at a friends house when there was a big clanging bang outside. Looked out to see the front half of a car from the back of the drivers seat forward beside the tracks with a very stunned driver still gripping the steering wheel unhurt but in an obvious state of shock. The back half of his car was a quarter mile down the track wrapped around the cowcather of the steam locomotive. I will never understand how this idiots car was completely sheared in half from the back of his head rearward and he was completely unhurt but maybe a little wiser.
Personally,
I belive in God. That guy and the guy from my memory probably were saved for some reason as we probably are all saved at one time or another.
some people can point to a time and others miss it.
I can relate to that from personel experience. Just haven’t figured out the why yet. Maybe it has to do with raising some wonderful children.
Could be that’s the why. Some people may never know why, probably because they really don’t care about it or think about it. How ever could some things be explained though?
I am convinced that most people involved in car-train crashes are simply expecting the train to slow to accomodate their self-important needs. Haven’t you ever seen a driver pull out in front of your car/truck, knowing that you will slow down to avoid a collision? Trouble is, the train CAN’T STOP even if they have time to try. Back to the original question, I think it is gross negligence for an advertiser to show a train slowing for their product. It will kill some people, and THEY won’t be buying a Caddy.