"The driver first went on a frontage road along the railroad tracks, and then drove directly down the railroad tracks, police said.
“We stopped the pursuit at that point, but one of the squad cars didn’t stop soon enough, and was struck by the train,” Wibe said."
http://thegazette.com/2011/03/16/train-hits-cedar-rapids-police-car-during-chase-no-one-hurt/
Sounds like the plot for a movie chase scene…
“Who’s up for some flapjacks?”
Hoo, boy! Somebody’s got some ‘splainin’ to do back at the station house!
“But I thought I had railgear on my car!”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73JORMGEA3w
Barney Oldfield knew not to drive his car on the tracks.
Would this make the railroad guilty of aiding the escape of a wanted fugitive? [~]
Wouldn’t that depend on whether there were reflective strips on the railcars, the amount of ambient lighting present at impact, and the officer’s familiarity of the rail line in question? [:-,]
Just speculating here, but I would guess that the area in question is where the passenger spur to downtown CR peels away from the UP main, and the fleeing suspect turned left into the UP MoW staging area between the converging tracks. With the police hot on his heels, he had nowhere to go but out onto the tracks where they converge. He must’ve made it over to the south main, but the squad car got stuck on the north main, where the eastbound loaded coal train “found” him. The picture accompanying the story shows the squad car sitting in the parking lot for the Sac and Fox Trail, which is just south of the tracks at that location, and one of my frequent picture-taking hangouts. There are several mistakes in the story, of course, such as the name of one of the streets is Fir Avenue, not First Avenue.
http://maps.yahoo.com/#mvt=h&lat=41.948023&lon=-91.620181&zoom=17
The perp was not somebody who turned down a job offer at NASA to pursue a life of crime.
The cops stopped him because they had busted him for driving on a suspended license a week or two ago, he gave them his registration and then bolted when he couldn’t give them a license. Then, he leads them on a chase and eventually gets his own vehicle stuck on the tracks, in time for UP to stop traffic and leave it intact where it can be seized and the inventory search turns up some “interesting items” which means either stolen goods or “pharmaceuticals” not from your corner Walgreen. And the cops know him.
As the Dodge sheriff would say, “You inna heapa trouble, boy!”
Nice that 19 trains were delayed because of that moron. I bet Walgreen or CVS sold some more antacid to a few dispatchers after that shift.
I wonder if the cop had his warning flashers turned on? I SMELL A LAWSUIT!! [8)]
When I first heard of it, our dispatcher (territories change a few miles west of Beverly/CR) was telling an eastbound just leaving that they’ld probably get delayed by Beverly. The dispr said the bird (Z train) was the one that hit the car. He also told us who the engr was, and the name would more likely mean a coal train.
Today deadheading with a couple of guys who went to Clinton last trip, one of the topics of discussuion was this incident. Second hand reports said the officers were trying to get the train crew’s names, driver’s licenses, etc. A UP company officer on the scene told them to just write down “railroad” in their reports.
All this just after a bird derailed (early Monday) at Le Grande, Iowa. Cheese, yogurt and diesel fuel spilled. One on-line comment to a newspaper article said they had to evacuate all those who were lactose intolerant for a 2 mile radius.
Jeff
That’s funny. I was wondering if the railroad police could cite the CR police for tresspassing?
So, you think UP will sue the police? [:-^]
I kind of gathered from the newspaper article that the the train hit the squad car at less than track speed. Perhaps the engineer saw the flashing red lights?
Remember what we read here earlier …“only a complete moron would outdrive his headlights”…[:$]
never mind.
Surprised the food channel wasn’t on site for that “nouvelle cuisine” delight.
I’m pretty sure he did- there’s about five miles of tangent track west of that location.