What a dumb a&$

Trains Magazine General Discussion
1

This guy is surely a top contender for the Darwin award…

from Altamont Press:

Passing freight trains disrupt marathon

Passing freight trains disrupted the 2005 Quad Cities Marathon, prompting a race organizer to drive a pace truck into the path of an approaching locomotive.

After runners were forced to stop and wait as two trains made their way through East Moline, Illinois on Sunday, Joe Moreno sped over to an intersection near the 22-mile marker and parked his truck on the railroad tracks, blocking a third train from passing.

“I don’t know how fast it was coming, but you could hear it coming from a distance. It was blowing its horn,” Moreno said Monday.

The train stopped less than a block away from Moreno’s truck.

Moreno says he then sat in the vehicle with the doors locked for nearly 1-1/2 hours as several hundred runners crossed the tracks. A railroad employee tried to get Moreno to move his truck, but it wasn’t until police arrived that the former East Moline mayor agreed to move the vehicle.

“With every minute, I was buying time for the runners,” Moreno said.

Richard Stoeckly, vice president and chief operating officer of the Iowa Interstate Railroad Co., said the disruptions were the result of a “breakdown in communication” between race organizers and the company.

The disruptions did not affect the marathon’s elite runners, Moreno said, adding that a passing train also interrupted the marathon in 1999.

Kenyan Paul Rugut won the 26.2-mile race, which cuts across the Mississippi River and communities in both Illinois and Iowa, with a time of 2 hours, 20 minutes, 27 seconds. - The Associated Press, The Modesto Bee, courtesy Larry W. Grant

2

Idiot. Anyone think to change the course route over a bridge or something. Surely a 26 mile route can be changed.
A move like that takes a lot of stupidity/guts.

3

[censored][censored][censored][#ditto][tdn][:(!]

4

I most certainly agree JDV5th, they need to think about changing their course for the running marothon. I would think they would of learned their lesson back in 1999 when a train did block the runners forcing them to wait. What also doesn’t make sence is for this Moreno guy to move his vehicle on the tracks. He is darn lucky that a fast intermodel didn’t come through at 60 mph and knock him and his locked car into the next life. There has to be better communication between the railroad and the organizers of the race for future planing.

5

From the article >> Richard Stoeckly, vice president and chief operating officer of the Iowa Interstate Railroad Co., said the disruptions were the result of a "breakdown in communication<<

Interesting, sounds almost like there may have been an agreement in place that the railroad either confused, or perhaps violated.

6

Unfortunately, to be a nominee for the Darwin Awards, they can no longer exist, or at least not be able to reproduce. Sadly, this genius seems to have escaped his fate by “less than a block,” thanks to a conscientious crew on the IAIS.

I seincerely hope there is some recourse that the IAIS can take on this.

7

[#oops] I didn’t know you had to be dead to be a Darwin award canidate.

8

You can get an “Honourable Mention” for doing something really daft but not getting killed by doing it. I’d say this guy is an Honourable Mention for being so dumb - does he not realise how long it takes a train to stop? It’s not like blocking a road, the train has no chance of taking an alternate route!

9

Makes me kinda embaressed to be living in Iowa! Well maybe he was from Ill.!
Randy

10

Local communities and civic organizations tend to get so wrapped up in their events and the organization required to handle the participants that they forget that they have to notify railroads in a ‘timely’ manner. Timely means well before the date of the event…not the day before or the day of the event.

11

that dude needs to go back to school and learn NEVER TO STOP YOUR TRUCK ON THE TRACKS WHEN THERE IS A TRAIN COMING EVEN WHEN YOUR TRYING TO HELP RUNNERS CROSS THE TRACKS.

in this situation Napolean Dynamite would have said ‘‘Idiot’’

kevin

12

More likely, somebody was supposed to contact the railroad and never did. Not to mention that nobody told “the former East Moline mayor” that a freight train could make scrap metal out of his truck, with him in it no less!

[#ditto]

IIRC, East Moline is in Illinois:

13

This IS how people get killed, and they should learn! Why don’t they learn?
What a hoser.
Trainboy

14

Entirely possible, but, with no more info than we have, even that possibility remains just that.

I find it VERY odd for the railroad bigshot to even acknowledge anything less than total fault on behalf the non railroad entity… Makes me think there might be more to the story. Perhaps some confusion on the date or time perhaps?

Of course none of that is meant to excuse the former mayor for doing a moronic thing., but several people here seem content making assumptions without full benefit of the story as well.

Such as the comments about a trains stopping distance…

That is going to be affected by the initial speed of the train, which I don’t see mentioned in the story.

Suppose said train was only just pulling out of a siding? traveling 2-3 MPH tops, And the idiot in the truck realized the train had plenty of room to stop,. before pulling out? …perhaps that block of travel by the train was done in creeper mode, with the horn blasting, hoping to intimidate the truck into moving?

The assumption that this was a “close call” seems to me to be just that.

my bet is the truck driver is probably just a big headed jerk, who thinks the entire planet spins just for him…like everybody else [:D]

15

I bet he didn’t even get a fine.

16

A couple of weeks ago we had a bike race here and I was trying to get a crew in the yard. Someone from the race told me that I did not have authority to pull across the crossing and I told them that my train will stop the bicyclists with no problem. He than called the police and they told him that since we were not informed that we did not have to stop.
Dave

17

I’m afraid we’re all preaching to the choir here.

Look at the headline: “Train Disrupts Marathon”. This idiot is probably a hero to everyone who doesn’t know better.

There probably isn’t a reasonable alternative to the marathon route, if it’s a local event. If I remember correctly, the track follows the Rock River fairly closely through town, and at least runs parallel to it. The good news is that trains aren’t going to be blowing through there at 60–not on that track! The big hero probably stopped some train that had plenty of time to see the truck, and crept up to “within a block” of the blockage.

The “breakdown in communications” is no doubt correct. Whose problem that was is now probably a moot point. Think the city is going to press charges against its hero? They’ll probably make him mayor again.

18

Local government should sue the guy who blocked the RR track. If that isn’t a “clear and present danger,” I don’t know what is. The railroad should also sue. And if they’re not careful, the events organizer and local government could get sued for allowing the race to take place over a busy rail line.

The public can get so OTL on this–I bet it plays in most media that those mean 'ol trains showed up to spoil a perfectly fine local event.

19

About 20 years ago, a similar thing happened at Larkspur, CO.

The day before a Renaissance Faire, its organizer (and town mayor) calls the railroad and tells the railroad that it cannot run its train through town for the next five days during daylight hours. Railroad response was that this is not accceptable due to the volume of traffic on the line. Railroad asks if a local deputy sherrif can be hired to protect the crossing. The answer from the mayor was certainly not and now he is going to block the track with a fire truck to get his way.

Our Superintendent’s response: " Hope you have another fire truck" and hung up the phone. County sherriff was flagging the crossing the next day and has done so ever since.

20

Anyone know if the train was blocking any crossings after it stopped for the less than smart ex-mayor?

Strabbs