The following news story appeared in the Rocky Mountain News on 11/17, and I am assuming that it happened in the Denver area.
"Three teenage girls suffered serious injuries yesterday when the car they were in crashed into a Union Pacific freight train at Weld County roads 52 and 17.
Colorado State Patrol spokesman Master Trooper Ron Watkins said the 1990 Ford Bronco driven by Nicole Bracht, 16, of LaPorte, smashed into the freight train at about 3 p.m. yesterday afternoon.
One of the passengers was not wearing a seat belt and was thrown out the windshield.
Bracht, who was wearing a seat belt, was airlifted to North Colorado Medical Center in Greeley with serious injuries.
Watkins said Chelsea Brown, 16, of Johnstown, wasn’t wearing a seat belt and suffered serious injuries when she was thrown through the windshield.
The vehicle slammed into the side of the lead engine of the southbound train. None of the UP crew was injured.
Bracht has been charged with two counts of careless driving causing injury and minor driver operating a motor vehicle with an unauthorized passenger.
There is no evidence of drugs or alcohol involved in the accident, the state patrol said."
It sounds to me that someone once again had tried to beat a train to the crossing. And if people are ever going to learn, it won’t happen until Hell freezes over.
I know what Carlos menca would say DE DE DE!!!. Lets see here diesel engine close to to a million pounds vs a 5-10 ton car and here is one theory: 2 objects cann’t fill the same area at the same time.
This is probably another reason the driving age should be pushed to 18. Apparently this 16 year old driver doesn’t know responsibility… oh well, by the looks of it, she won’t be driving till she’s 21, considering she has very strict parents.[;)]
I had a guy walk into the side of my moving car once.
It was snowing pretty good and dark when I pulled into the Lake Villa, IL Metra station. I was doing about 5 MPH when I saw this guy come out of his car all hunched over against the storm as I passed him. I was freaking “PASSED HIM”! with the front of my Ford. Then I heard a “thunk”. He had just walked into the side of my moving Ford product.
I stopped and looked in the mirror. He was standing in the middle of the parking lot with his hands stretched out to his side. Well, he wasn’t hurt that bad. So I properly parked and walked back to find him. The car that dropped him off just left. She might have figured that this was further confirmation that he was an idiot.
By the time I got there he was gone. No blood in the snow. And I wasn’t going to search him out in the station.
They drive into moving trains and they walk into moving cars. They are out there.
Not sure what could cause such inattentiveness to drive into the side of a train - perhaps a cell phone was involved. But this incident is exactly why many states have banned teenagers from driving with other teenagers as passengers.
I refer to that as “a critical mass of Stupid”…but I understand that the “Graduated License” structure,where teens arent allowed to drive with other teens (usually not in their family) untill a certain age, and other restrictions which gradually expire, is working pretty well.
Of course, a dedicated Darwinian would say that laws such as that are artificially keeping the gene pool diluted with stupidity…