This is horrible.


Utterly tragic! Surviving the hell of war just to die like this!?:eek::mad:

Now watch somebody try to sue Union Pacific...
 
Sounds like someone forgot to tell the railroad, what a tragedy. We humans do make some terrible mistakes.
 
Oh my. Who would have ever thought something like that could happen. I still don't understand if the trucks were IN a parade or on their way to a parade.
 
Horrible.

Does it not fall on the driver - parade or no parade, sirens or not. Any professional driver crossing tracks, in a bus or van loaded with people, is required to stop and look both ways first. At least in my state. Would that have made a different outcome? A train could never stop in time but lots of people seem to not get that.
 
By Charles Smiley;

Does it not fall on the driver - parade or no parade, sirens or not. Any professional driver crossing tracks, in a bus or van loaded with people, is required to stop and look both ways first. At least in my state. Would that have made a different outcome? A train could never stop in time but lots of people seem to not get that.
Click to expand...

My thoughts exactly. The UP said the lights and crossing gates were working properly, so it looks like somebody made a very big mistake.
 
It's amazing, the vitrol and hatred being vented at the engineer by completely ignorant people. I really have sympathy for that poor guy.

I don't see how this could be anything but the truck diver's total lack of judgement. You don't start across a crossing unless you have enough space to clear it. He put himself in a position to get stuck on the crossing behind another truck, in what he knew was very slow traffic (being in a parade!).
 
Maybe they are just plain unfixable-stupid.

Really, the average adult cannot explain (in a cogent fashion) what happens when you flip a light switch on in their own home -- or how an incandescent bulb works. 100+ year old technology escapes their grasp. So don't expect them to have a handle on simple physics.
 
I watched all the linked news videos, and not a single one of the people could figure out why the train didn't stop in time. Now, the news types are trying to blame UP for going so fast.
Personally, I think the driver of the truck should be tried for multiple counts of manslaughter. At the very least.
 
That's what I mean. So many clueless people out there. Isn't that why so many of them get killed that way. Throw the book at him and make it very public so others will let it sink in.

Dumb like the squirrels around here. They run all the way across the street and then just as you are bearing down on them they suddenly panic and run back the other way. :eek:
 
from all i have heard in the local news the truck went across the tracks and had to stop, then the gates came down while the trailer was still on the tracks, and the gates came down. they are still showing people who keep saying the gates failed, they were not down before the truck started to cross. all the people saying the crossing gates did not work, but every picture and video i have seen shows the gates down, and the lights flashing. now they are wondering if the sirens from the firetrucks and police cars escorting the parade drowned out the train horn. i still say the truck driver is at fault. him and the train crew have to live with it the rest of their lives.
 
The most basic driving rule is to never assume the "hole" ahead of your vehicle will continue to enlarge so your vehicle will then be cleared. That is probably what this guy did. He relied on another person to keep moving to make his movement safe. The instant you rely on someone (when there are safer alternatives) you invite this sort of thing. Other people will hang you out to dry.
 
I spoke to a supervisor for NJ Transit, just after a NE Corridor Acela train had a jumper. He said it takes an engineer a long time to get over this type of incident. In fact, Amtrak provides counseling specific to these types of deaths. This incident is a bit different than a jumper, but the anguish and guilt on the part of the Engineer are probably similar. The other twisted fact that the supervisor provided is that on many occasions, the jumper will look into the face of the engineer just before impact. Incredibly selfish on the part of the jumper...
 
As a result of a horrific accident several years ago in Chicago or suburbs involving a school bus with kids that got hit when there was not enough room between the tracks and intersection, all crossings are posted with the distance between tracks and intersection in Illinois. I don't know if this is followed through out the country, but it sure highlighted the hazzards that are sometimes associated with certain railroad crossings.

Too bad that a heightened level of awareness only seems to come about after the loss of lives.
 
I recall reading a newspaper article a while ago on how operators are trained by Metro North, the commuter railroad around New York. The first day the trainees were there, the instructor said "In the course of your career on the railroad, each of you on the average will kill 3 people. If you can't face that, now's the time to quit." We pay a price for having trains. But then of course, we pay a price for being idiots.

(It may not have been 3 people, though I think it was. More than 1, certainly.)
 
One of the further links on the page I linked to above shows where a train hit a bus full of kids in Egypt, and killed 49 children.
 
When I was learning to drive, my father taught me that you NEVER cross railroad tracks unless you have enough room on the other side. NEVER assume that space will open up. And never stop on tracks for any reason.

I feel badly for all involved.
 
I watched a near miss back in the late 70s when I was stationed at the Tustin LTA station in Santa Ana, CA. The Amtrac tracks ran north and south on the east side of the base. I worked in a radio station that was at the south east corner of the base, where I could see the grade crossing of Jamboree Rd. just a couple hundred yards away. I watched a tractor with trailer stop at the crossing as the gate came down and an Amtrac approaching at the typical 60+ mph. The gate came down between the cab and the trailer and the truck couldn't move. The driver eventually left the cab but took up a position down track from where the impact would have been. The train missed the truck by what had to be inches. Had the train hit the truck it would have thrown the whole thing onto the driver.
 
According to USA Today, the NTSB said the signals were activated twenty seconds before the accident. The train's horn was sounded nine seconds before the accident for a total of four seconds. They reported that the second floated entered the crossing after the crossing gates started lowering. The engineer activated the emergency brake as soon as the gate lowered onto the float and there were no problems with the train or equipment.

Whatever the reasons for this tragedy, the effects will be extremely far reaching.
 
This is terrible

The New York Times reports that the locomotive hit the truck 20 seconds after the warning signals began, and that the train was travelling at 61 mph in a 70 mph speed zone.

The truck driver is definitely culpable in this event, but, on the other hand, it feels like 20 seconds isn't long enough when trains can be going that fast. The speed limit was raised from 40 mph a few years ago.

Would having a longer warning signal have made a difference here? Probably not, but it does raise the question of how they arrive at the timing of the signals.

Seriously; count of one one thousand up to 20 one thousand, and then see how far you can travel in a car doing 70 mph during that interval.......
 
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