Well we had another one here in wisconsin again today 3rd one in 3 days. And all of them CP trains one was on monday the guy wanted to kill himself so he ran his car onto the train tracks and got killed yesterday a man walking his dog got hit and killed by a CP train and again today another person said he though he had enough room to clear the tracks but when the gates come down he was stuck but he was lucky this time he was only injured and not killed but next time he may not be so lucky. But now comes my point when. I got trained to drive bus we were told if there is not enough room to have your backend of the bus clear the tracks wait on the other side until there is enough room. To clear the tracks I really think everyone should be trained like that or fail their road test but then again we have a lot really stupid [censored][censored] peole out on the road these days and what does it take for people to learn that trains can not stop as fast as a car or truck can for a train going 35 Mph it would take upto a 1/2 mile for it to stop after going into emergency. If you ask me Most people dont need to be driving becaus ethey can be so[censored] stupid when they come up to a RailRoad crossing they think they can be a train to the crossing and they wont get killed or badly injured but oh well I guess it will have to take alot more deaths or injures to finally think hey maybe I need to be safer around when crossing train tracks. But then again that’s my own opion. Oh if anyone has anything else to add go right ahead and do so.
AARGH… maybe Operation Lifesaver should do ore than paint locos and hand out colouring books to kids.
Matthew
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QUOTE: Originally posted by railfan619 – edited by fuzybroken
Well, we had another one here in Wisconsin again today – 3rd one in 3 days. And all of them on Canadian Pacific, though today’s was a Canadian National train. On Monday, the guy wanted to kill himself so he drove his car onto the train tracks from his backyard and got killed. Yesterday, a man walking his dog got hit and killed by a CP train in Pewaukee. And again today, another person said he thought he had enough room to clear the tracks, but when the gates come down he was stuck. But this time he was lucky, he was only injured and not killed but next time he may not be so lucky.
But now comes my point: when I got trained to drive bus we were told, “if there is not enough room to have the backend of the bus clear the tracks, wait on the other side until there is enough room to clear the tracks.” I really think everyone should be trained like that or fail their road test, but then again we have a lot really stupid [censored][censored] peole out on the road these days and what does it take for people to learn that trains can not stop as fast as a car or truck can. For a train going 35 Mph it would take upto a 1/2 mile for it to stop after going into emergency. If you ask me Most people dont need to be driving because they can be so[censored] stupid when they come up to a railroad crossing. They think they can beat a train to the crossing, or they wont get killed or badly injured. But oh well, I guess it will have to take a lot more deaths or injures to finally think “hey maybe I need to be safer around train tracks.” But then again that’s my own opinion. Oh, if anyone has anything else to add go right ahead and do so.
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I have actually been hearing OL commercials on the radio around here, but it seems that it is not quite nessicary here, we have not really had any accidents. However, i od see people og around the gates alot.
I’m personally a fan of leaving the mangled vehicle next to the crossing for a week or so. That should help people think about things such as that.
James
You could put up steel gates, or post armed guards at the crossings. It won’t help. People that want to do suicide by train will do it if they have to parachute out of the sky.
And all humans are risk takers. It is part of being a human. Some deal with it better than others. Some will go around those gates, no matter what. In their minds they have no time or patience for a silly train. Besides, they have done it before and nothing happened. Just like that slower car they raced around on the wrong side of the highway just before the hill. No one was coming over the hill, so nothing happened.
Give the railroad crew as much protection as possible. Train them on what to do to protect themselves - cuz it’s gonna happen.
Mook
Natural selection baby!!! Gotta love it.[}:)]
railfan619
I am glad to hear that you and your fellow drivers are being taught to not enter the railroad crossing until you are certain that there is room for your vehicle in the clear on the other side of the tracks. Even though traffic signals are usually set to turn green when when rail crossing circuits are activated, one can never be certain that every driver will proceed so that vehicles on the tracks can pull in the clear. As you probably recall, that was the cause of the train bus collision in the Chicago suburbs that took the lives of several school children.
If I was running a bus company that had routes crossing tracks, I think I would issue that safety warning to every driver at least twice a day. Keep up the good work.
Jay
People are stupid and they will not learn unless you threaten them. Put them on the tracks and see what they do. This goes against OPERATION LIFESAVER but they havent listened yet.
ICMR
Happy Railroading.[swg][swg]
When will they learn? About the time the front coupler hits their vehicle.
Jack
[(-D][(-D][(-D][(-D][(-D][(-D][(-D][(-D][(-D][(-D][(-D][(-D][(-D][(-D][(-D][(-D][(-D]
Beautifull theory, but that’s still no guarantee.[(-D][(-D][(-D][(-D]
Why am I a Canadian, why are you an American? Same philoshiphy applies with stupid people-they stupid because that is who they are.
Death is usually inevitable and soon; those are simply the facts. Killed by a train, killed by another car, drive into a building,…it’s all the same really.
people these days are in such a hurry, esp. in their autos.
people know dangers of cocaine and meth. and still do em!!
maybee in newer cars the auto man. can put a item in cars electrical hardware to stop at all red lights and rr crossings so lives may be saved. cops have a gun they point at newer cars and the cars engine stops or goes to idle.
on the chicago and alton line north of bloomington il. , a heavy duty chain link fence comes down across width of both auto lanes both sides of tracks. this was in 1990s. there are cameras at some to get lic. numbers.
railfan619
I drive a city bus in our state capitol, and we were given the same instructions. But at a recent safety meeting we were advised to stop as far to the right as reasonably possible. So I tried it and sure enough people started passing me when I started across the tracks. Do you have this same problem?
I didn’t really care at first since the street was spacious enough, but then I started getting cars passing me in two’s and three’s. And then there was the Fed-Ex truck who flipped on his right turn signal while he’s passing me crossing the tracks!
I once saw one person loose their life because of something stupid. It seems to happen all the time.
I work 911 for a living, and I have spent most of my life in Public Safety. I have reached one inescapable conclusion… There are people that are chronically, and irredeemably stupid, and there is NOTHING that can be done to help them. They will just be stupid, period, and will do something stupid to end their lives, or more unfortunately, someone else’s …
The real problem is that the disease of "stupidity’ seems to be spreading at an exponential rate.
[banghead]
Posting something like you posted in a RR forum where most people are totally aware of the dangers pf beating the train to the crossing is really valueless. Since you seem so concerned about this problem why not stand day after day at a RR crossing & take the tag #s of the cars that go around the gates or do not honor the flashing lites & report them to the police. Then you will at least be doing something for saving someone life. [?]
[quote]
Originally posted by railfan619
Well, true as that may be, everybody needs a little [soapbox] time once in a while. “Preaching to the choir”, so to speak! Besides, it’s probably news to a lot of people…
And how many of us do you think are here to do something productive??? [(-D][(-D][(-D][(-D][(-D][(-D] [swg]