[:(] A trailor loaded with strawberries was struck and demolished by a fast moving freight today. The driver is Ok and his rig looked like it survived also, but the trailer is strawberry jam. It literally exploded into spinters and strawberries when the locomotive roared through the crossing. The TV news showed the scene several times tonight.
I guess we now have a new nickname for the driver “Jammed” I wonder how in sam hill that load got Jammed? he he.
At the least the driver was not “spread” all over the place. Also, I take it that the fast freight was “preserved”. [:o)]
Brings new meaning to “being in a Jam!”
***, that was no freight train, it was Amtrak. I just saw that video on the 10 oclock news. All I can say is that engineer was damn lucky. The clip I saw showed the cab of the locomotive, it was crushed. He may have had time to seek cover further back in the locomotive.
The truck driver should have known better than to leave his trailer hanging out onto the tracks. Appearently the traffic light turned red on the cross street, and the gates came down behind him while he was stopped. It seems there is the road design issue that needs to be dealt with.
Oohhh. If the trailer was blocking the crossing due to a light… the Driver just lost his Job, will be charged with obstructing and failure to yeild and other related charges. He should have stopped short of the track. But shoulds woulda and couldas dont matter now. Now we need to learn if there was a problem with the road design.
I recall a school bus that got knocked off it’s frame simply because there was no room between that stop light and the rails behind it.
New handle… “Scraped Jam” (Bottom of the Jar)
The TV shot that I saw didn’t show the rest of the cars or even a good shot of the locomotive, so I could not tell if the cab was badly damaged or not, and it looked like a freight loco. Glad you got a better TV shot Elliot, thanks for updated info for our forum readers!!!
Yeah guys, I actually saw it 3 times. The first 2 times were the same clip, and were captured from behind the truck. From that angle I couldn’t tell what got hit. Suddenly an Amtrak train appeared on the left, then splinters. The second clip made everything much more obvious. It was taken from the other side of the tracks, and not so square to the action. At the tail end of that clip they showed the damage to the train.
Nobody got killed, I think they said there were 6 people injured all on the train. It looked like the tractor just sat there, while the trailer got cleaned off. I never heard anything about the strawberrys, too busy watching.
I heard some drivers in cars around the exploding truck were slightly injured.
Oh my God, I found a copy of the story with video on the local TV station’s website. Please excuse the commercial, but seeing the video is worth it.
Text story, then click on the link under the photo for the video.
The only thing unexplained is why there were two separate videos from both sides? They were fixed also as there was no shaking or movement of any kind. Weird to say the least. It aired in Chicago last night.
The CBS morning news today said the crossing was being taped by a guy who was previously injured at that crossing (i.e., to prove it was an unsafe crossing), and that the two cameras were there by coincidence when this accident happened. Well, not sure if I’d call the driver’s recklessness/stupidity an accident, but y’know…[;)]
Jim in Cape Girardeau
from the article above:
Seems the man planted 2 camera’s in an attempt to capture any irregularities and caught the accident.
PS, there was an issue with a crossing and a School bus in a chicagho suburb a few years ago. from what i understand, they redesigned that intersection after the bus was hit to keep it from happening again.