Another brainless person. … What do you think will happen ?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=203hzHUCn94
Steve
Another brainless person. … What do you think will happen ?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=203hzHUCn94
Steve
It seems to me that the SUV was sliding sideways when it entered the
frame. My hypothesis is too much speed on the wet roadway, not
intentional drive-around. A terribly frightening event for all.
I could be wrong, but I think the same SUV seen coming toward the camera at the very beginning made a U-turn (hence looking like it was sliding sideways) and then drove back around the gates.
Maybe it’s just me, but if I’d lost control due to slick roads, I’d have turned away from the crossing, not toward it (and on across the tracks). In fact, it looked like things were very much in control when they drove across the tracks…
We don’t know why the driver crossed the tracks, then pulled a “uey” and drove around the gates - lost? But it does look to me like his/her driving around the gates was intentional.
All I saw was totally deliberate actions - no loss of control of anything except the motor vehicle operators brain.
I agree with Larry; we do not get much view of the vehicle that crossed the track just before the gates came down, but there is some resemblance between the vehicle moving to the left and the vehicle moving to the right, and the swerve towards the right of the street would be the completion of the U-turn and not a skid. I will not say that the path(almost) around the gates could not be done by a skidding car, but such a path is highly improbable. Balt has it right: apparently the driver had his mind fixed on something else than the fact that the area between the gates that are down is not a street, and so is forbidden territory; the driver’s brain was not under control. I wonder how long it took him to get to where he had wanted to go.
Watched the beginning of the video several times. No doubt in my mind it was the same vehicle that went left then made a U-turn.
Remember what Lee Iacocca said years ago?
“The biggest flaw in American cars is the loose nuts on the steering wheels!”
Come, now; Lee Iacocca was simply rephrasing an observation from as far back as least the thirties, “The most dangerous part of a car is the nut holding the steering wheel.”
Happened at Reliant Stadium Astrodome complex, the Metro Rail Service south terminus is just behind or to the right of the train, that’s Fannin street in the background.
The Suburban entered the east parking lot of the stadium, u-turned and tried to beat the train, which had just come out from under IH Loop 610 South.
The driver had entered the “wrong” end of the several acre parking lot, and was going to go to the west entrance, where the football stadium, Reliant Stadium, is located…
https://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ll=29.68233,-95.40242&spn=0.006301,0.013647&t=h&z=16
Scroll down to see the “round house” service facility for the Metro Rail.
The more things change the more they stay the same. Here in the archives of the “Fortress Firelock” I’ve got a 1917 issue of “American Motorist.” There’s a big motor safety article in it describing some of the stupid things people do behind the wheel. It could have been written yesterday.
I wonder what the author of 97 years ago would have thought about cell phones. I can imagine.
The worst part about that whole episode is that it gives lie to the whole “argument” of having to wait “forever” for a long train to go by. It was a two car train…
Out of curiosity I started timing times I was stopped at grade crossings. The average time I was stopped for the typical CSX freight around here was five minutes. For an Amtrak train, thirty seconds.
Not talking to the Forum posters here, because we’re all cool, but if you can’t spare five minutes at a grade crossing, or a lousy thirty seconds, shame on you!
The issue of a long train delay does not mean that it applies to every train. Typically, the delay might not be much longer than a traffic light. But there are sometimes delays at grade crossings that drivers consider to be completely unreasonable. Once they experience that, they always remember it when approaching any activated grade crossing signals. It has nothing to do with the actual time it will take for the crossing to clear. It is about a memory of a past delay, a worry about it happening again, and a willingness to take a risk to avoid the possibility of it happening again.
It does not excuse running a crossing signal, but it does help explain it. Of course, people can be motivated to beat the train even with no idea of an unreasonably long delay. The driver in the video was obviously impatient. The U-turn was probably illegal, and it gives evidence to impatience.
Last time I was stopped at a grade crossing, I had to slow down to about 10 mph to let the gates come down all the way. Didn’t want to miss one of my rare opportunities to watch a passing train. [:D]
Oh, you too, huh?