Flashing lights, crossing gate, reflective strips ... "what train?"

[OldEastRR]

Saw the story tonight about the idiots in the SUV who drove straight through the lowered gates with the signals flashing and the bells ringing, right into a parked train and got trapped under a tank car marked with reflective stripes AT NIGHT. Then the train started moving.
All the safety measures in the world can't fix stupid.

[peteski]

They were probably driving with their headlights OFF!  So they didn't see any stinkin' reflective stripes or the belly of the tank  car. Wouldn't surprise me in the least. 

[Jbub]

This happened a 4 years ago in the city I work for. The lady survived with just a broken arm I believe.

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And this happened this last winter when I was out plowing streets. The local transit company (UTA) employee had raised the gates without checking for incoming trains. He was fired after the investigation. You can see his work truck with flashing lights parked next to the signal shed right before the train hits the truck.

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[Maletrain]

Saw the story tonight about the idiots in the SUV who drove straight through the lowered gates with the signals flashing and the bells ringing, right into a parked train ... All the safety measures in the world can't fix stupid.

Well, they COULD fix "drunk".  But, those folks typically won't.

I'm just glad the first-reponders didn't get hurt tying to help the idiots when the train started  moving.

[coosvalley]

And this happened this last winter when I was out plowing streets. The local transit company (UTA) employee had raised the gates without checking for incoming trains. He was fired after the investigation. You can see his work truck with flashing lights parked next to the signal shed right before the train hits the truck.

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Love how the gates and lights come down AFTER it was all over!

[Jbub]

Love how the gates and lights come down AFTER it was all over!

The transit people wanted to blame the city for putting salt on the crossing, which we don't do. The funny thing about that is the salt helps with conductivity in water and causes the gates to come down, not stay up
Another thing is this was the same crossing from the other vid and yes, she drove into a moving train running from the cops.

[SSW7771]

My Dad told me a story of someone broad siding the third locomotive back of his train years ago. Didn't feel a thing and did not know until they were flagged down by the Sherriff several miles down the line. The funny is the lady claimed that the train hit her, but it was very clear that was not true with the impact damage on the fuel tank. 

Another funny story was getting flagged down by the Sherriff near Livingston, TX and was written a speeding ticket for going too fast in town!

[jagged ben]

Another funny story was getting flagged down by the Sherriff near Livingston, TX and was written a speeding ticket for going too fast in town!

Wait, you mean the sheriff wrote a ticket against a train?

[SSW7771]

Wait, you mean the sheriff wrote a ticket against a train?

Yes, he wrote a ticket against a train.

[MK]

They were probably driving with their headlights OFF!  So they didn't see any stinkin' reflective stripes or the belly of the tank  car. Wouldn't surprise me in the least. 

Possible but unlikely with day time running lights on almost all cars on the road now a days.  The running lights should be bright enough to hit the reflective stripes to make them visible.

[mu26aeh]

Possible but unlikely with day time running lights on almost all cars on the road now a days.  The running lights should be bright enough to hit the reflective stripes to make them visible.

Not sure where you're at, but in south central PA, there are many, many vehicles without DRL's.  It's been something I've noticed a lot of since my wife was in an accident 8 years ago.  Early morning, had rained overnight and other vehicle was dark in color.  Had it had DRL's, my wife may have seen it and not been hit.  As far as I'm concerned, DRL's or automatic headlights should be standard safety feature on ALL vehicles sold.  *steps off soapbox*

[peteski]

Yeah, around Northeast USA there are still quite a few cars without DRLs. Plus many older cars (which are often driven by the future Darwin Award winners) don't have DRLs.

[Maletrain]

My 1993 Corolla doesn't have auto headlights or DRLs, but I can just leave the headlights on all the time, because they go off when the car door is opened with the engine off, and come on again when I restart the car.  That car is now old enough to vote and drink whisky, and has enough miles to be well into a second lap to the moon and back.  So, I would think that most cars on the road, today, would be capable of having headlights or DRLs on all the time.

[jpwisc]

There was one a couple years ago in Northern MN, BNSF had a train go into full emergency. While it was stopped over a crossing protected by stop signs, a guy drove into the side of the train. The guy must have been used to blowing the signs. He hit the train so hard his Cherokee was compressed like an accordion. The photo showed the reflective striping on the car right where he hit is as well as the reflective striping on the stop sign post right next to where he hit. He was killed instantly.

We have a saying at work "If you are going to be dumb, you gotta be tough."

[nkalanaga]

A lot of towns have speed limits for trains, and others have limits on how long crossings can be blocked.  At least in Oregon, the courts ruled that a town can't have BOTH, because that would effectively limit the length of trains, which would interfere with interstate commerce.

Jbub:  It doesn't even take salt to mess up crossings.  In the 70s, the Glade crossing, just north of the Pasco yard, had only lights and signs.  At the time, Pasco averaged about 6 inches of rain a year, almost all in the winter and spring.  The summers were hot and dry, and dusty.  The local sand has enough iron particles that you can pull them out with a magnet.

When it would rain, after a long dry spell, the combination of water, iron-rich sand, and creosote would short the crossing's detection circuit, and the lights would flash continuously, until a maintainer could either turn them off, or adjust the sensitivity.  Neither my father or I ever knew exactly what they did to fix them, but it would work, until the next rain after a dry spell.

That was a nuisance for the farmers and other using the crossing, which had a surprising amount of traffic.  It was a very short road, but it connected Glade North Rd, the main highway north from Pasco into the southern Columbia Basin Project, with Oregon St, old US 395, which, in turn, connected to new 395 a couple miles north.  The railroad yard was between Glade North and Oregon St, so there was a fairly long stretch with no crossings.

The BN still had the old NP semaphores as home signals for Pasco Yard, just north of the crossing, and they were ALWAYS set for STOP, unless the dispatcher cleared them.  Trains leaving Pasco for Spokane were easy to see from the crossing.  Trains bound for Pasco were hidden by a large sand dune until they were almost on the crossing.  I learned, before I could drive, to look not only at the crossing signal, but also at the RR signal, before proceeding!

Now it's all modern light signals, unreadable from the road, but they also removed the sand dune when they changed the signals.