Can someone please explain what causes so many cars to amazingly “stall” when crossing train tracks and then come to a complete stop ON THE TRACKS?
Whenever someone gets hit by a train in their vehicle, they almost always claim their car stalled as they were crossing the tracks. A couple of years ago a guy managed to “stall” his car on the tracks. Along came a CSX train and shoves it into a Maryland commuter train.
You see it all the time in the news reports that they stalled. I think they need to do a scientific study of this. I volunteer to apply for the big research grant.
No scientific study needed, just simple logic. Most railroad crossing are rather rough, and many drivers slow to almost a crawl to go across them. This is the most likely time for a car to stall out, especially if it’s in need of a tune up.
…Probably some panic attacks involved with some drivers as one is crossing the tracks and at the last moment notices a train is approaching and then does something to allow the vehicle to “stall” and then with “thinking” skewed…can’t restart the vehicle.
There’s a crossing in West Bountiful, Utah where at different times, a car got high centered on the tracks. One of the times, the stuck car was demolished by a passing train, and the other time, train movements were held until the stuck car was removed from the tracks.
I’ve driven over that crossing many times and never had any problem, although a custom lowered car could have problems. Nowadays, the crossing in question is being reconfigured with an extra track for the FrontRunner commuter service.
That would be an interesting study - how many vehicles are hit while moving (ie, running the gates), and how many are stationary on the crossing (ie, “stalled”), discounting those who may have been prevented from clearing the crossing by a vehicle in front of them.
Applying a principle of arson investigation might prove useful as well - did they stand to somehow gain (get out of payments, etc) by having the railroad wreck their vehicle?
Over the next few months, please observe how many stalled cars you see at traffic lights. In most cities it will be more than a few. Any time a car stops, there is a higher probabilty that it will stall than if it is moving. We here about stalled cars at RR crossing because they often create “newsworthy” events. Rarely do stalled cars at traffic lights make the news.
Stalling used to be a problem with cars before 1980. And perhaps cars made after that with manual transmissions. I have not seen a car stall in this little town for years. 'Course we only have 1 traffic light and it is only 2 years old.
Having a 120 decible horn blaring at them might tend to disrupt their focus somewhat, put their brain into a “deer staring into headlights” type vaporlock. Make them forget their normal problem solving routines.
I’ve seen cars running crossing gates that have actually hit their brakes while right on the track as the engineer blares down on the horn.
I’ve often wondered just how much of that extra laying on the horn is rooted in a genuine concern for safety, versus being an extension of the engineer’s middle finger?
I drive a car with a standard transmission, and every time I encounter a crossing if in traffic I make sure there is a car’s length on the other side of the crossing (everyone should do this, though I rarely see it done by other drivers) I feel it gives me enough room to make it over the tracks without having to stop, especially since I started driving standard a month ago and sometimes stall (less than I did a month ago, of course…
the middle finger extension applies to the conductor in the cab as well…he is the one that has to walk back after the slight bump…short period of grinding noise…and a cloud of glass and dust…and of course the application of emergency…
I find it hard to believe that the engineer would be thinking of “flipping the bird” at someone whose car he is about to run into if said person doesn’t take notice and get that car moved pronto. I find that the salute is more frequently used by those who are fairly certain that the potential danger is past.
well in all honesty until you ride the cab a few times and see first hand the absolute stupidity shown by 99% of drivers when it comes to gradecrossing safety you just have take it with a grain of salt…yes granted most “bird flipping” is after the fact…when its happening the people in the cab…just before the hit…are usually cursing a stream along with slient prayers
Humm this is an interesting subject. I did a report and a seminar on Train / Car Collisions at grade crossings for my high school Senior project. I didn’t even think to do any research with respect to stalled cars on the tracks. That might have been interesting.
I will say that I am a bit surprised that no one “yet” didn’t mention the fact that some people don’t even bother to slow down for grade crossings weather a train is comming or not. This is espeacially evident down here in Louisville, KY. People don’t care they will fly over a grade crossing at 50 plus mph; not all of these crossings are in the best of conditions either. Some of these crossings don’t even have gates and some of them are in Quite Zones. Some people just don’t care, everyone’s in a rush these days.
Ive seen it myself so many times and am always amazed when a driver that is stuck on the tracks with a train approaching will just sit there and wait to be hit. They do not try to force themselves forward or backward, perhaps damaging their car and the one they force themselves into; no, they just sit there and let the train hit them.
And so-called professional drivers are generally no better. Another thread here has links to videos showing tractor-trailer trucks sitting in traffic on crossings until the train hits them. And that school bus in Cary, IL a few years ago that got hit by the commuter train just sat at a red light and let the train kill a bunch of students instead of just pulling through the red light into traffic.
I can only suppose that panic is the reason for such irrational behavior.
Exactly! That is why one should use quick, short blasts of the horn instead of one long blast. This is true for both people and deer (a nd dogs and possums and skunks and…)
I’ve often wondered if the moment the moron hits his (or her) brakes is the first realization of what they were actually doing.
Part of it is to try to attract attention to the situation just in case there is a donut shop nearby where a cop might be sitting and maybe see what is happening.
And since you mentioned the bird, I have had drivers go around the gates in front of my train that was so close to the crossing that I could almost count the fillings in their teeth, give me the finger as my train just missed their vehicle. Of course, those are the ones I get the license plate number and call in the near-miss report. Then the state sends the driver a nice letter informing the driver that he now has 4 points on his driver’s license, and also a request to sent in $500 or appear in court.
I used to have a car that was built after 1980 and had an automatic transmission, so its still possible. Also, there are things which could cause a car to die (such as a dead alternator) where you won’t be going any farther.
I remember seeing a vehicle where someone had a new car which got stuck on the tracks at a public crossing - the guy got out and called the police who called the railroad, but it was too late to get the train stopped and his new car got smashed. At least he wasn’t sitting it in when it happened.
My observation pertaining to “flipping off” pertains more towards not so near “misses” that I have observed frequently at the nearby crossings.
One would agree that the engineer’s going beyond the customary long-short-short-long is merited when a car throws itself into danger by driving around the gates.
Frequently I see the engineers still laying on the horn even after said idiots have cleared the crossing
So, I’d guess that boiling emotions up in the locomotive cab are at work in those instances. Trying to send a message perhaps ?
Hey, I’m not saying that I’d be above doing the very same thing, if I were the engineer, In fact I can visualize it.
You should see me when I realize the idiot in front of me is in no big hurry starting up from a stop at an innersection, because he has a cell phone growing out of one ear .[censored]