It is no doubt. Several news orgs reported train hit car as usual. This suv hit the last car of a CSX freight train. Crossing had gates that were replaced quickly. Since it was the last car of the train it would be interesting to see the alignment of road to RR. Also did the last car(s) have reflector tape? Crossing gates usually have reflectors.
4 dead in Chicago suburb after SUV hits freight train | Fox News
I’m familiar with the area and the line in question crosses Halsted diagonally. The crossing gates were operating and lowered so the driver wasn’t really thinking safety.
If they hit the train at speed (a possibility, given that the gates were damaged), I’d wonder if it wasn’t simply coincidence that they hit the last car. Ten seconds later and they might have broken through the gates, but have missed the train.
Four people in a vehicle at oh-dark-thirty - distracted driver comes to mind, never mind the possibility of impairment.
Yellow reflective markings have been mandatory since 2005…
Yes, but those reflective markings get dirty, fade, and often times get sprayed over by grafitti. I’m sure there was reflective tape on that last car; whether or not it was visible at night would be another matter.
So they ignored the flashing lights and the lights on the gates and did not see the reflector tape on the gates. As the driver of a car I hit when I was 16 asked me…“Can’t you see a thing as big as a car?” He could not see a freight car?
Driver error. Or some other monkey business going on.
Monkey business? someone’s head in the drivers lap? I knew at one time a guilty person not me of course!!!.
Four young people in a car - and everyone is paying attention to the joke at hand, rather than the road ahead…