Hello. Well today I was surfing railpictures.net and I found that there were alot of pics of idiot drivers getting hit, or getting very close to being hit. Here they are:
The best solution is to eliminate as many grade crossings as necessary. This is the only sure fire method I know, but it is expensive! But, what price do you put on a human life, even one of an idiot?
Years ago,my Mom worked in a factory that backed up to the N/W line of Chicago’s now Metra line. She would come home to me during those years and report of yet another either near miss of Commuter V/S Car , or Train pushing car down the track. At the very same intersection close to the now defunct factory, (now some other business) I have seen many times the same scenario played out, like whenever I return home for a visit. It’s like don’t they know how fast these short consists travel?(especially the middle track of a 3 track line, express train during rush hour ?!? [:O] A few years ago just before returning to my home in what feels like a desert, from Chi Town, I braved the rain to watch an hours worth of Metra’s during rush hour. Wow! whether walking over, or driving in that same neighborhood near that old factory, you would never find me rushing the tracks! [2c]
An idiot’s life is not worth much, certainly not worth all the trouble to find a different route for them that doesn’t have trains. Besides, they’re the kind of people who, if you save from getting hit by a train, will just run out into traffic to get across the street rather than waiting for the “stupid cars” to quit going by. They’ll wipe themselves out one way or another.
If all warning devices are functioning, I don’t feel the slightest bit sorry for anyone stupid enough to wreck with a train. It is just unfortunate that drunks, reckless drivers and people who try to beat out trains affect the lives of others because of their driving.
they do mix it just results with a boom…It’s sad how many stupid people are out there…the North Shore Senic R.R. has had problem with drivers running with FUNCTIONAL CROSSING LITES gess they think they can win …but they cant…
i stop at railroad crossings even if there appears to be no train coming. i never want to miss a single train. of course the guy behind me usually gets annoyed because i stop, look, and listen. once i actually luked out when the gates came down right after i stopped. though it was just UP 1063 and LLPX 2253 (2 switcher geeps in Altoona) pulling a short line of cars into altoona. it was still a train though. doesnt it usually take an 80 car freight train going at 50 mph about 5 minutes to go through a crossing? what’s 5 minutes going to do to you? 5 minutes of your time is a whole lot better than dying. especially if the train is a metra passenger train, that wont even take ONE minute!
and theres idiots who want to play with big trucks as well. i know this cause i got 5 years otr under my belt. i can be in the middle of nowhere and people wanna pass a truck to take the very next exit at less than 200 ft. gee couldnt they have waited a couple of minutes???
Yep, it seems that they don’t value their life as much as being in a hurry to get nowhere. I don’t understand those people, Operation Lifesaver is doing a good job to educate people about the effects of idiocy.
Even here in Germany, where trains go at considerably higher speeds idiots never will die out! Best is, when another idiot car was hit by a train, papers would write like"TRAIN HITS CAR" or similar nonsense, implicating that the train is to be blamed - now, what else could the train do - get off track?
People generally forget, or simply don´t know that trains need a much longer way to brake down, a train going at 60 miles an hour needs a braking way of at least 700m, an ICE train going at 150 mph needs more than one mile(though there aren´t level crossings on high speed lines)…
Tom
Been there…done that…Almost lost a foot one day riding point on a shove move. We were only doing 10 mph or less when a Gentlman in a brand new Chrysler blew around the grades at a crossing. Punched the coupler right through the passenger side window. When we finally got stopped, he was wedged between the knuckle and the drivers side door!!!
Fortunately he walked away with only a bruise on his upper right arm.
Sad part was…He was driving right along side of us as we were shoving back down that track and he never looked up once and noticed us there. His mind was on other things and not his driving.
Some of you may have already seen this one but I thought you folks would love this one…It’s a link to a video about a semi truck getting hit last year in Oxnard, California. Enjoy!! I did, but only because no one get seriously hurt.
I have been on a train that killed someone who drove in front of us. Some people just don’t realize it’s not worth the risk for the few seconds you will save.
At the age of 16, a switcher was standing on the C&NW westbound main headed east. The eastbound passenger train was running 2 hours late. Because I thought the wig-wag was for the switcher, I crossed just ahead of the passenger train, not seeing him until he filled my driver side window. I was safe by maybe 1 second. I learned a good lesson that night almost 50 years ago.
I have a place where I do some railfanning on the weekends and there happens to be a crossing there. People stopping on the tracks while waiting for the red light is a very chronic problem there. People going around the gates even when the train is sounding its horn Its not restricted to car drivers, cyclists and pedestrians too take risks. People just don’t care how these actions affect train crews, especially when there is a collision. Some people won’t even wait for light power. The biggest problem is people are in too much of a hurry to get to their destination that they are willing to take risks at all costs. These people just don’t care how it affects the train crews when there are collisions. For the idiot driver, life is over…for the train crews life is changed (emotionally) forever.
They can’t wait five minutes? I’ve seen people race PEDESTRIANS - Jam on the accelerator and breeze through thr crosswalk (functional and activated lights)just to [barely] get through ahead of ONE! Five minutes must seem like an eternity to these people…when they can’t even wait ten seconds for a pedestrian…
Where I frequently railfan, it’s a level crossing and in the last month there has been one car hit and a truck almost hit, now these ones weren’t caused by cars racing the gates or light, the first the truck stalled on the crossing and a long freight train was coming and luckily the engineer spotted the truck from about a Km away and stopped in time, but only metres in it! and the second A car turned too early and drove down the track, after about three minutes a city train came and clobbered the car at 70kmph luckily the occupants had cleared out in time. but when I do go down there, I reguarly see vehicles cyclists and pedestrians run the lights, people don’t realise that, A red light at a level crossing has the same meaning as a stop light at an intersection! the drivers complain that the gates come down too soon after the lights begin to flash, but I have timed it, and from when the lights start flashing it’s about 12 seconds before the gates come down, the speed limit on the road there is 50kmph so that equates to about 600m to see the lights before you get to the crossing. PLENTY of time. and the speed limit for trains is 90 for freights and 110 for passenger and 120 for tilt trains, a car has no chance at those speeds.
I’m heading down tomorrow to get some pics of the crossing and trains, i’ll post some tomorrow night.
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