Just after noon today, five teenagers were killed after they drove around a lowered crossing gate and were hit by an Amtrak train in Canton Township, a suburb of Detroit. Amtrak train 353 was headed from Detroit to Chicago and dragged the car 150 feet down the track. This is why I’ve told my 16-year-old that he will not drive in a car full of other teenagers. I don’t know any details so I can’t presume, but it sure seems possible they were busy texting and had the radio blaring and weren’t paying any attention. Very tragic for all involved…
This was on my bellsouth.net homepage, just a few minutes ago.
Police: 5 die when train hits vehicle in Michigan
Published: 7/9/09, 2:25 PM EDT
CANTON TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) - Police say an Amtrak train crashed into a vehicle near Detroit, killing all five people in the car.There are no reports of injuries aboard the train.Canton Township Police Sgt. Craig Wilsher says the crash occurred around 12:30 p.m. Thursday in the Wayne County community about 20 miles west of Detroit.Wilsher says the vehicle was heading north when it crossed the train tracks and was hit, pushing the car about 150 feet from one road crossing to another. He wasn’t sure of the victims’ ages.
Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari says the train was on its way from Detroit to Chicago. He says passengers will be taken by bus to Ann Arbor to board another train.The National Transportation Safety Board didn’t immediately have any information about the crash.
Whether they were texting and/or had the radio blairing is really inmaterial. It’s the fact the driver drove around a lowered crossing gate that’s very disturbing.
Current reports from the local media indicate the Amtrak train was traveling 60 to 70 mph; within its limits for the area. The car appears to be a Ford Focus. Can’t imagine what the families and crew are going through right now…
This one may hit as close to home as any so far. My niece would have attended the same high school (or at least the same campus, occupied by three high schools) as these kids–at least the boys, who were older–did, and she may have known them, or possibly some siblings. As of now, names haven’t been released, so she doesn’t know for sure.
Many states restrict the number of teens that can drive with other teen age drivers in one car, family members not included. Didn’t the driver learn about the danger of driving around lowered crossing gates?
Wisconsin has a law where there are only 1 or 2 under 18 people can be in the car. Under 18 drivers can only drive at certain times of the night (unless they are coming from somewhere like work, school function, something legit i guess)
As for the driver that went around the gate, I guess he learned once. Sad and a very avoidable tragedy.
Some lawyer will convince a jury that the gates weren’t down. The testimony of the engine crew will be thown out because it will be assumed they are lying. It’s Anoka all over again.
And the insurance company will take notice and increase its premiums. It has no other realistic choice.
Well it’s sad. The Bartzokis Study is confirmed again – that is the study that got so much attention a few years back, showing that the brain only starts to create significant myelin – the white matter that makes the various gray matter brain parts really work together (layman’s version here) leading to the ability to forsee consequences and have good judgment – during the teen years. The brain is still not doing a good job of forming myelin during the teen years – that really awaits the later 20s and 30s and finally is done around age 50. So just about the time you have the ability to exercise good judgment, you have fewer and fewer opportunities to need it!
This is why, bluntly stated, so many things that teens do, and college kids do on spring break, seem (actually, are) so stupid. And this is why there is so much money to be made from “Jacka**” tv shows and Girls Gone Wild DVDs and, yes, being a divorce lawyer …
How we explain middle aged married Congressman and younger women was not explained by Dr Bartzokis, unfortunately.
This case will likely be federally preempted. I doubt that filing a lawsuit will be possible, much less viable. Preemption has really gutted what used to be a cottage industry for plaintiff’s lawyers on railroad crossing incidents. Besides, all the plaintiff lawyers who specialize in railroad accidents are probably focusing on the glut that will be following the Rochester CN/IC tragedy.
On a different note, I am pleased to see the respectful way forum members are treating this. I was wincing reading this post, thinking someone would say something crude about the deceased. Although I cannot understand why someone would do something so stupid like that, they certainly more than paid for their misstake. Also, as far as we know, the other teens in the car didn’t agree to the driver’s poor decision making. I shutter to think the number of times I was in a group as a teen when someone was doing something I knew was stupid, wrong, and likely to result in trouble but I didn’t have the courage to overcome the peer presure to speak up and put a stop to it.
Other people say they will not let their children drive in a car with multiple teens. My biggest fear is letting my child ride in a car with another teen at the wheel. It will be hard enough to try to get my children to use their good judgment while driving. The thought of trusting them with another teen’s judgment is going to be very hard for me to accept. I think back at some of the decision making I and my friends had at that age, and I know that teen
All well and good; however, there is still the matter of natural stupidity. If the study cited is accurate, it still doesn’t explain why some kids will drive around gates, while other kids are playing baseball or home reading. Stupidity has to be a factor (in addition to the underdeveloped neural structure). Sorry if this sounds harsh, but reality can be that way sometimes.
Note that on the part of the driver - the only one that really matters here - this appears way beyond inattention or distraction, or even stupidity or under-development.
According to the reports, the driver didn’t just ‘blow past’ or ignore the crossing signals - instead, the driver actually took a deliberate, intentional, knowing, and reckless action to steer around and evade the warning device. In effect, the driver acknowledged that the gates were there, and pretty much what they were there for - and still took steps to defeat their purpose. That’s not stupidity, since the driver was smart enough to do and accomplish that. At best, it’s a gross error in judgment. More likely, it was gambling with the train’s speed - as evidently mis-perceived by the driver - to save a few seconds or some aggravation, with several lives at stake, or ‘dicing with the devil’. [}:)] But this time, the devil won. [:(]
Such tragedies will not be completely eradicated in our lifetime.
My thought would be to install “gates” that make it not an option to “drive around” them with the thought at being able to “beat the train”…But I’m sure that is not going to happen.
And some people will often “take chances” and some will simply make the mistake of “driving around” , not to “beat the train”, but just in making a mistake in what they are doing…
There was a suv stopped at the crossing for 17 seconds before the teens went around it and the gates. While I am very sorry for the families loss I am more sad for the engineer. Having been involved in 7 grade crossing accidents in my 11 years behind the throttle they are never easy. Only 1 was fatal and I can still see the look on the passengers face just before we hit him.
Just saw on the news that they have a video of the accident. Hard to see impact, but you can see the train and the car goin down the tracks. Seemed like the car driver didn’t even stop or slow down too much. You see the car, then seconds later it’s goin down the track. That would be gruesome to watch. Those kids probably had no time to realize what was going to happen. Shame that lives are snuffed out like that. My heart goes out to all involved.