Operation Lifesaver Training needed - Texas LEO edition

[Philip H]

https://www.cnn.com/videos/us/2019/05/22/train-hits-police-cruiser-newsource-orig.cnn

[Iain]

So close to winning a Darwin Award.

[nkalanaga]

Well, they can drive through other "traffic control devices", as long as their lights and siren are on, so why not crossing signals?  EVERYBODY knows to get out of the way of a police car!

Yeah, right...  They can still get an Honorable Mention from Darwin, and possibly be listed as an "At Risk Survivor".  Maybe the railroad will sue for damage to the locomotive?

[CRL]

The deputy saw the hopper cars clear the crossing, but didn’t see the full speed train on the 2nd track coming from the opposite direction. Supposedly racing to a call of an infant in distress.

I wonder if this was a “no horn” zone like some cities have when crossing arms are present. I didn’t see a concrete lane divide like we have in our “no horn” zones.

[eja]

Hey. I got a gun, a badge and a cowboy hat.  Why do I gotta obey them railroad flashin' lights

[Maletrain]

The video clearly has a locomotive horn blowing as the train approaches the crossing.  The video is to short in its beginning to know if it was a classic long, long, short, loooong signal.  And, the cop might have thought it was the hopper train blowing for another crossing down the tracks.  But, still, its "Stop, LOOK and Listen".

[daniel_leavitt2000]

Infant in distress calls are the highest priority calls you can possibly get. It gives you complete tunnel vision to everything around you. Worse than armed robberies, shootings, anything else.

I've dispatched these calls. Given CPR instructions to parents who are so panic stricken there is no possible way for them to function.

If this was indeed the case, let's withhold judgement.

[Maletrain]

I would hope that a trained police officer is properly trained on observing his/her surroundings, even in the heat of very tense moments.  Dying on the way to help an infant in distress doesn't help the infant.  And, there are many ways that a policeperson can kill innocent others, besides him/herself, when trying to deal with dangerous situations - high speed chases, cross-fire incidents, mistaken identities, etc. etc. etc. A propensity for "tunnel vision" would seem to be a disqualifier for the job.

[nuno81291]

mistaken identity like my wife’s ex coworker who was gunned down in his own apartment when a LEO thought she was entering her own apartment... can’t make this stuff up. Hope the entire book gets thrown at her.

[Maletrain]

I read about that incident.  Really no excuse for the cop in that one. 

There was another near me many years ago where the cops staked-out and then raided  the wrong house and killed the homeowner who responded to his wife's screams when the door was knocked down and a bunch of "plain clothes" (actually clothing disguising the police as ditch diggers) stormed into the house with guns drawn.  The crack house was actually in the next block at a slightly different address that was correctly printed on the warrant!  There is just no substitute for situational awareness.

But, we need to be aware that we are drifting this thread toward the "Crew Lounge" for sure.