Every time I go Train watching I see an every day thing that never changes,Drivers always trying to beat the Train.
Even what scares me the most is the new attatude from drivers is just cross the Tracks “WITHOUT” even looking at the Train as it races at them as they foolishly cross the Tracks. “THEY DON’T EVEN LOOK AT ALL”
I mean with all the Tecnology we have today and we still can’t make RR Grade Crossings any safer! Train Horns just arn’t working. I see People talking on cell phones,Playing with their Hair,Eating,Drinking,and worst of all…The Car Radio blairing out loud,and so on…E.T.C…
But the most scarryest thing is…Is watching a “STUPID” Trucker carrying highly dangerous Fuel going through a RR crossing “Right in front of you” while at the same time your Railfanning as a Train is quickly approaching the crossing! Man and you talk about SCARRY AS HELL. I don’t know how many times I have seen that. Let me know your feelings about what I said,Am I right or wrong? I know that the rule of the use of the Train horn must stand of today but even today it is kind of useless because of the attitudes of drivers now a days.
[bow]BNSF[bow]
…So many have the attitude that allows them to pay no attention to what’s happening on the road or as they cross the busy railroad tracks…I don’t know what one does to get their attention…before tragedy strikes. Train warning horns are plenty loud but the problem is drivers have the other items raging higher in DB’s and it overpowers the horns warning…We all know how loud some high amps are pushing the sound in some cars…Nothing is going to overcome that for the driver. They simply have to act responsibly but we know that is not going to happen 100% of the time…
After 25 yrs of picking the injured, dead and soon to be dead off our local roads I have came to think that the one thing that you can never change is that empty space right behind the eyes that some drivers seem to have when they are behind the wheel.
I have seen so many near misses while railfaning I do not know why I have not seen a wreck. You can make grade crossing as safe as posible and some moron will figure out how to defeat it. Peaple will do some pretty dumb stuff while behind the wheel.
Just a few days ago a man who has live on my road for 10+ years was talking on his cell phone and sort of forgot that the end of the road was a tee and sailed accross the highway and into a cement porch on a house. Why he did not get hit crossing the busy state highway I do not know. He was not happy that he got 2 tickets 1 for using a hand held phone and 1 for not stoping for a stop sign. He got mad at the police officer. Go figure.
In the computer business there is an acronym for it: PEBCAK. Problem Exists Between Chair And Keyboard.
We have a rural intersection near here that has been the site of several serious accidents, including some deaths. The folks in the area are in an uproar about this dangerous intersection in light of another accident there the other day. The driver with the right of way said the other driver “nearly stopped” then pulled out in front of him. She was no stranger to the intersection. Neither were the two women most recently killed there. One lived just a short distance away, and from what I gather, did the same thing. The obvious solution is to stop, look both ways, then proceed, but that’s apparently too hard for some folks.
There are so many distractions for drivers these days that it’s a wonder there aren’t more accidents. An advice columnist recently replied to a mother who said she was helping her child study for a spelling test while driving the car with what amounted to “shut up and drive.”
Despite vehement claims to the contrary, driving and talking on a cell phone is EXTREMELY dangerous, far more than eating, etc (unless you spill your hot coffee in your lap). I’ve managed to escape any accidents, but have had a couple of close calls. It’s illegal now in NY.
All the talking on the cell phone is just one symptom of the rush everyone seems to be in. What used to be a chance to get away from it all, listen to some music and occasionally curse at another driver has turned into an extension of the office. Someone who is trying to dictate a memo, schedule a meeting, and close a deal has little time (and attention) to give to something like driving, looking for or waiting for trains.
Sounds like it’s the drivers that are dangerous, not the RR crossings.
The only practical ways to prevent grade crossing tradgedies, aside from grade separations, are to put crossing gates across all lanes of traffic or place a “Jersey Barrier” down the middle of the road up to 500 yards before the crossing. Red Light cameras at the grade crossing and crossing gates that extend across both lanes of a two lane highway are another possibility. Permanently stationing police at grade crossings just won’t work.
Rudy
The only practical ways to prevent grade crossing tradgedies, aside from grade separations, are to put crossing gates across all lanes of traffic or place a “Jersey Barrier” down the middle of the road up to 500 yards before the crossing. Red Light cameras at the grade crossing and crossing gates that extend across both lanes of a two lane highway are another possibility. Permanently stationing police at grade crossings just won’t work.
Rudy
Unfortunately, the best designs are not the ones that change human behavior but allow it to do it’s thing.
I’m all for $100,000 fines for first offenders in crossing gate violations. That, short of putting up retracting steel bars designed to stop 3 fully loaded semis may be the only effective solution.
i know what u mean i was watching a train and this guy pulled up to the crossing looked and then went thru, he thought he had enuff room to squeeze in behind some cras because there is a traffic light right after but he didn’t . luckily the light went green just before the train got there, mind u this is a crossbuck protected crossing.
I wi***he stupid motorists would confine their gene pool clensing to the road traffic and leave the trains alone…better yet; if they want to commit suicide that badly, shoot themselves in the head and let the other intelligent and innocent moterists et al avoid injury from the morons.
For some reason, morons at crossings tend to sprout like weeds just begging to be mowed down.
or if they really wanted it badly they could some of these: http://www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c.cgi?u=manly_suicide
Here in Florida, it seems like many of the driver’s are in “La-La” land.
Out of all of the horns I’ve ever heard the K5LA, IMHO, is the loudest out there! ( I think it’s melodic, though) Even a deaf person standing near the tracks might feel the sound waves of this horn vibrating in the air! CSX winded up putting choke fittings on some of their K5s. Residents constantly moan about trains horns down here because they’re so loud
( I have no pity for whiners moving next to rail lines!)
Even with this, there are still plenty of brainless clods willing to fly right through crossings and be angry at the train if they get hit and survive!
I’m for a $500 fine for racing the train the first time and $2,000 the 2nd time with the money being earmarked for “OPERATION LIFESAVER”.
Stop “Look, Listen and Live” the rest who are too dumb to follow these simple instructions dont deserve to waste any more time here in this life. I have no pity for those who go around gates. I once gave my spouse a hard time when she went around the gate trying to save a few seconds… I told her that the next time that she decided to save a few seconds will be me hosing her and her blood out of the mangled car. And that would be “forever” not a few seconds. She has never tried to beat a train since.
You cannot legeslate stupidity…here in Mass…we just had another death at crossing…There is an ordanance forbidding trains from blowing horn on approach to crossing…now our Legislature is re introducing mandatory whistle signel on approach …BUT…local neighbors are objecting…Tracks there LONG before they moved in,Anyway…only in Massachusetts …Tom
Now that I come to think about it,This is no worse than watching a dumb driver driving his or her car through a street that has a sign that saids “High water” and yet what do they still do,Well you guessed it.
Never ceases to amaze me…lights on, gates down, car (truck) goes around then someone dies. How about 15 in Bourbannis, Il. in 1999. When the truck went around the gates and was struck by the City of New Orleans, most of those people died in the fire that ensued after the fuel tanks on the locomotives burst and caught fire. Closer to home, several crossings have been closed because they are too dangerous for cars to use when trains are approaching. Guess people just can’t see the lights. There was an incident last year where a lady approaching an unmarked crossing was stuck and killed by the northbound Cardinal. The CSX had a train split in the siding and she crossed there. My favorite is always the public reaction to such incidents…“well why was the train going so fast”, “how could they not see this car and stop”, “something should be done, this crossing is dangerous.” Make them all like JNR, and the NEC, grade seperations and the bridge at every crossing. I can’t remember the last time someone was hit in their car in downtown Indianapolis. Oh wait, those tracks are all elevated, so no need to worry about cars crossing in front of you.
I can’t believe people are so stupid, i mean when does a train stop on a dime? and besides it’s not the crossing that’s dangerous it’s the drivers.
Just the other day here on the CN mainline a lady was struck and killed on the RR tracks.
Her car had stalled on the tracks, and she went to flag the train to make it stop so it wouldn’t hit her car…
She was standing right inbetween the rails flagging the train, apparently she too thought that trains could stop on a dime. [banghead]
The level of Stupidity of humans is growing. Only so much can be done.
Hey what the hell what can you say…
The DUMB just get DUMBER!