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California light rail line has crash before it opens
They need those embassy gate car stoppers at crossings nowadays. That’ll keep them safe, until somebody gets trapped on the crossing. Can’t make that mistake twice!
And never estimate the IQ of those poor truckers.
Have no doubt the trucker will receive no more than a slap on the wrist. He’s probably been making the “illegal” turn at that location for a long time. If he had collided with a sedan or even a transit bus, and totalled it with significant injuries to its occupants, it might be a different story. But a train? That train has no business getting in the way of vehicular traffic, right?
I wonder if one of the trucker’s minor injuries is a kick in the butt?
I must concur that the average American crossing gate is insufficient against scofflaws and idiotic drivers who ought not to be behind the wheels of trucks or autos. Wherever possible weather-wise, at-grade “embassy-type” telescoping barricades would be a stout improvement in blocking vehicles from the tracks well before they interfere with a train’s passage. Frankly I wouldn’t mind seeing automatic spike plates – as used to block wrong way drivers from entering or exiting parking lots, one way lanes and so on – that would demolish rubber tires of offending autos and trucks, impractical as that might be.