This accident happened about 1/2 mile from my house, as the crow flies. It’s the same rail line that I have been photographing with my daughter (older posts covering this), even the exact same loco was involved. I was standing out in my driveway when it happened. I didn’t hear the boxcar hit the van, but I sure heard the dozen or so emergency vehicles and the helo’s hovering over my house. Fortunately, it looks like there will be no fatalities as a result of this accident.
They said this boxcar broke loose and ran for 4 miles AFTER hitting two vehicles. I’m amazed that the boxcar could keep rolling that far with no power behind it - suppose I should check to see what the grade is over that 4 mile stretch…
I hate to get too much off the forum subject matter, but that is one heck of a minivan. I didn’t catch what the make was, but to get nailed by a runaway at that speed and everyone survived, WOW!!! I wonder if the Indiana&Ohio is going to replace the minivan and Suburban??? I wonder how many calls these folks have gotten from schister lawyers. Gotta sue, sue ,sue, that’s the American way!!
That particular crossing is exempted from gates and such. There is really nothing there except a separate stoplight that lights up when a train is coming. The crossing runs diagonally across an intersection, and I can tell you from going through that intersection at least twice a day that if there was a train coming through at the estimated 50mph they say the boxcar was running, and you were coming perpendicular to the tracks, you wouldn’t see it until it was in your lap. On both sides of the intersection are wooded areas that would conceal the approach of the oncoming boxcar…
When a regularly scheduled locomotive comes to that crossing, I think it actually comes to a stop, starts blowing it’s horn, and gives everyone a chance to see it coming and stop their vehicles. Then it shoots across the intersection. I’ve never seen this particular train have any more than 4 cars on it at a time, so it scoots through the crossing pretty fast, even from a dead stop.
Almost forgot… It was a Ford minivan that was hit… But I heard it wasn’t a Windstar, it was the model before the Windstar, like an Aerostar or something like that…
My wife was just rear-ended on Monday. She HAD [:(] a 2000 Ford Windstar. She was at a stoplight, stopped… Got hit by a Land Rover doing about 45MPH. My two kids were in the back, including my son who was in the third row seat. My body shop guy said that they were lucky to be in a Windstar, because the Windstar has the strongest built rear-end of all of the mini-vans out there… I guess my point in all of that rambling is the Ford mini-van seems to have been built pretty well, at least from a strength standpoint, for quite some time.
that is very werid that it would not go into Emergency the second the airline was broken. someone must have shut the Angle Cocks(i tihnk thats the proper term). very strange. its a freak accident
I don’t think it’s downhill the whole way - I know there are at least some minor rises, but need to look at the actual topo maps of the area and see what the lay of the land really is.
And when it derailed it turned into a bulkhead flatcar full of lumber. There are amazing things all through this story. There is a thread to pictures and the video on the trains magazine forum.