I hardly see trains here in Jamaica, all we have is probably 8 units owned or assigned to WINDALCO (West Indies Alumina Company. The two involved in link below I have video clips of, guess I won’t be seeing them for a while. The careless truck driver unfortunately died from severe injuries.
http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/html/20050817T230000-0500_86393_OBS_SMASHED______TRAIN_CRUSHES_TRUCK_IN_BUSHY_PARK.asp
There was local news last week that a double-tanker truck of propane gas went around the crossing gates at a small town in northern Mexico and got hit by a train. The driver and train crew were all killed, and nothing of the small town where it happened was left but a large crater in the ground. Other than the train crew and truck driver, Mexican officials had no idea how many people had been killed in the blast.
Man, that’s tragic. Some people need to take more care when crossing tracks. The sorry thing here in Jamaica is that quite a number of the railway crossings here have no gates or signals. When some drivers here a train coming their only intention is to go through the crossing before the train. The longest train I’ve seen is 40+ cars long. I don’t mind stopping to allow the passage of the train but you have guys going around me even while the gates are being closed.
I’ve been a fighterfighter/paramedic since 1983 and have seen multiple people killed/crushed/maimed by trains. I have never seen a loco jump the tracks and case down a truck or car in order to hit it. People are in such a hurry to get where they are going they disreguard safety and think “I can make it…” we all know the rest of the stroy. In all my years of driving emergency vehicles, I HAVE NEVER WENT AROUND A LOWERED RAILROAD GATE! If I can wait, why can’t everybody else. The train always wins, and innocent people get hurt.
Verse2damax - I think I like your journalists, at least the one that wrote that article. Direct, blunt, and totally accurate as to the cause of the wreck and to whom the blame should be assigned.
I’m sorry for the guys family - they’ll be the real victims in this accident.
It is a tragedy, but it could have been avoided. People don’t realize that a train can’t stop on a dime. At the 2001 PCRRHS convention in Albany, there was an Amtrak F40PH that had been in an accident with a truck. The entire nose of the unit was bashed in…and from what I heard, the truck was completely destroyed.
I have pictures of my neighbour’s car that was damaged by one of the WINDALCO trains. His story was that the driver didn’t sound the horn (there were no crossing gates), he didn’t see the train until he was on the tracks.
I’m going to post the pictures of the damage on the car as well as the crash site in the morning.
Another very tragic collision that should’nt have happened, i always say it’s better to be late in this world than it is to be early in the next
No lights either? Treat the crossbucks as a stop sign.
I think that’s a campaign they oughta bring back… “Stop, Look, Listen.”
Perhaps they could add “and Live” on the end of it… with a suitably gruesome picture. Preferably teenaged.
Years ago I strapped my camcorder to the short hood of a local turn diesel. The run was about 15 minutes. I was shocked and amazed at the number of people who cut around the lowered crossing gates to beat the train. To this day, when I watch that video, I shudder and get uneasy. I can only imagine what the engineers feel day after day.
Mark C.
One evening I was watching a crossing and the gates came down. Some clown came along and went THROUGH the gate, smashing it off the post. He kept on going. I reported it to the local police, and the railroad came out and fixed it pretty quickly.
Well there goes to show the Power Trains have…
Allan.
jeffshultz,
Here in Jamaica teenagers are the least of the train engineers worries. Here you have privately owned taxis and mini busses these guys are the main perpetrators. Although not all are this way there is still a large number of them who have no regards whatsoever for fellow road users and the law. They’re too busy trying to make a buck, no matter the cost . You should see some of the accidents involving these guys. You’d probably be wondering which train caused such carnage.
My hope is that the careless drivers take this as a grim reminder of what haste can cause. BTW, this type of accident is not common here.
Ouch. Sad story, that locomotive really crushed that truck. My prayers go out to the families involved.
uspscsx
what gets me is look at the pic and all the people around .
then read this
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this is a haz mat because of the caustic soda .even if the cars arent leaking there should not be that meny people that close. it’s alway weard to see how other countreys handel things diffrent from us. because they simply don’t have the money or traning or man power to handel them .
I am sorry for those affected.
I think it’s not wierd so much as interesting to note that the rest of the world still treats things as we used to 50 years ago. Caustic soda is highly unlikely to jump out and get anyone either. But, we have subsidized emergency everything, so the bigger deal one makes everything, the more pork barrel money they get. Absurd. That’s why when some 90 year old has a heart attack driving during a hurricane they want to charge that fatality to the hurricane. Heck of a system we have going here.
I will never forget when a minivan was in a wreck in downtown Columbus one afternoon, and the airbag ruptured, and they had 75 people in yellow Hazmat suits running around and were taping off the entire downtown during rush hour, and it was on every news channel. A total man-made (bureaucrat maybe?) catastrophe. They finally got a Chrysler spokesman and he looked amazed. “I can’t believe anyone would even suspect we’d use a hazardous material in an air bag that’s supposed to deploy in an accident,” he said ruefully.
EMT49,
You have a valid point. There are tenth of thousands of people living along the daily route of this train and I’m quite sure none of them are aware of the potential hazard that a wreck resulting in a leak could cause. The fire men on the scene themselves have limited knowledge not to mention equipment. All concern at that moment was focused on recovering the body of the truck driver.
That my friend grings home the really of, how much do we really know, be it first or third world country. We only know what we are fed, ie. information that we are allow access to but that’s another topic.
thats odd we have plenty here
Well, chalk up another motorist to the railroad. People just don’t get it. It is stories like these that make people see how much is truely at steak.
Use your brain, don’t race the train.[V]
I like that line…I think OLS could use that.[B)][tup]