Sarah and Mutt, very good pics. Very glad the two occupants only had minor
injuries. I’m glad, that when I had a vehicle, I always put the car in PARK, while
watching the trains go by!!
There was a crossing right at the end of a yard, and trains leaving the yard always went mighty slow. The crossing could be blocked for twenty minutes or longer. People would get out of their cars and talk. It was not unusual to see people throwing a Frisbee around while waiting.
when the lights are flashing and the gates start to drop, i’m always there first. i stop right behind the stop line, turn my car off completely, get out, and rest my hands up on the gate to get a “front row seat”.
unless it’s a coal train… coal doesnt always stay in the cars perfectly and a small chunk of coal can easily come flying out at any given time. ouch!
but i make sure i’m right up and close to intermodals and manifests!
Judging by the photos that Locomutt and Sarah had gotten, the individual who was driving this car was very lucky to get out of this with only minor injuries. If he or she had any common sense, they would have kept their foot on the brake and maintained a safe distance between themselves and the train. But then if they carelessly let their foot slip from the brake to the gas peddle, I can kind of see myself doing the same thing if I was in the same position…as clumsy as I am!
CANADIANPACIFIC2816
“There was a time in this fair land when the railroad did not run, when the wild majestic mountains stood alone against the sun, long before the white man and long before the wheel, when the green, dar forest was too silent to be real.” Gordon Lightfoot
Well, since no one was seriously hurt in this surge of idiocy, I don’t feel too terribly bad about LMAO over it. I’d love to see the intricacies of the lawsuit that I’m sure will arise out of this one! The question is who will file one first; the lady’s insurance company to protect her freedom of stupidity, or the RR for property damage…due to above stupidity.
If your going to be there awhile waiting for a train/red light/ etc its not that mentally difficult to put the car into Park.
This accident would have happened anyway, eventually, if not here, then at the next light or Stop sign. The driver would again lift the foot off the brake and the idle alone from a big engined SUV w/ auto tranny will roll forward quite easily, right into the crossing/intersection/police car in front of them, only instead of a thousand ton train to stop it, they would have rolled into an interesection and maybe got broadsided by a school bus full of disabled students or a gasoline truck, or rolled into a crosswalk or a baby carraige or over a group of Nuns crossing the street at a stop sign.
Either way you could say that this was the least of all possible stupid outcomes of a really stupid action.
You might want to reconsider your actions. All sorts of nasty objects have been known to come off of moving trains, most of which will reorganize your physical appearance and/or life expectancy.
Brake shoes
Chains dragging
Springs (from the trucks)
Boxcar doors
Lumber
Banding strips
Shall I go on…?
In addition to the above, any objects ON the tracks in front of a moving train has the potential of becoming a missile launched from beneath the lead locomotive.
Rocks
Spikes
Tie Plates
Ties
Junk dropped from railcars
I can assure you that those sort of things are regularly placed on the rails; and I have personally seen the damage these objects can do when launched at 50mph.
FWIW: When I am in my vehicle and I get stopped by a train, I stop back at least 100’. If I am photographing an approaching train, as soon as I get my shots, I get away from the tracks ASAP. I always leave myself an escape route, just in case.
Stop and think about some of the “geniuses” (sarcasm intentional) roaming around on the roads, and it actually could be beyond their mental capacity to put the car in park while stopped for a train.
Willie found some dynamite. Couldn’t understand it, quite. Curiosity never pays; It rained Willie seven days. or, Willy, in a fit insane, Thrust his head beneath a train. All the folks were pleased to find How it broadened Willy’s mind.
