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Dont trains usually win? Like 99.99% of the time? The other .01% would be hitting a loaded fuel truck or when the car goes under the locomotive.
To people who go around flashing crossing gates, all that I can say is, Survival of the Fittest.
When I was in Europe a few years ago, they were experimenting with a crossing gate that came up out of the street in front of the crossing. It was a five or six foot high chain link fence affair that blocked both sides of the street. There was no way anyone could drive around it. Anybody heard anything more about this?
We worked a special enforcement detail with the CHP and the then SP special agents. We had a lot of grade crossing that were protected by flashers but not gates. The vehicle code stated you had to stop when the lights were flashing but that was widely ignored, leading to several grade crossing accidents like that in the link Chris posted. The special agents would radio ahead when a train was coming and we would set up with two cars on each side of the crossing. Any one who went over the crossing after the red lights started to flash got a ticket from one of the units on the other side. What we didn't count on is that we had many times where five or six cars would make it across before the train and we couldn't stop all of them. The operation lasted three days and we handed out more than 400 citations. We probably could have given twice that many if we had more units. I witnessed one van with a mom and four kids make it across a freight going about 50 mph by maybe two coupler lengths. I asked her why she took such a risk and she said that her oldest was late for his soccer game.
There just isn't much you can do to pound common sense into people.
Slightly on topic;
In my area we have a UP line that follows US 377 for several miles. There are several subdivisions near this line and the residents are complaining as the trains run 24/7. Some of the improvements include double gates for silent running and berms and wayside horns for less noise.
There just isn't much you can do to pound common sense into people.
Jim some do learn not all but some do......Not to be cold blooded....That's what the train did! Those teens won't ever make that mistake ever again. nor any one that was there and seen that horable wreck and this vid and takes it to heart and learns from their mistake! Now If some one would show this to their teen age kids......it won't stop most from being stupid but it would stop the few that do care to live, some is better than non!....JMO chris
Slightly on topic;
In my area we have a UP line that follows US 377 for several miles. There are several subdivisions near this line and the residents are complaining as the trains run 24/7. Some of the improvements include double gates for silent running and berms and wayside horns for less noise.
Who was there first?
Chris,
I think those kids were doing what a lot of people I saw that weren't kids do - something foolish that ended up in tragedy. If that crossing had two gates on each side of the tracks that completely blocked the road, it's likely that this wouldn't have happened. If there's ways to protect people from a one second dumb mistake, we should use them, especially on high speed rail lines. Being foolish is not a capital crime.
Guys: just when you think something is idiot proof, an idiot will figure a way to prove you wrong.
Rex, true, but at least it will take true idiots and not just the careless.
A little off topic,
Has anyone modeled a scene like this. Not to be morbid, just curious. After all it is prototypical. I've always seen cars pulled over with the model cop cars flashing, or a building on fire. I have yet to see this scene though. You could have fire trucks, ambulance, police, even a medi-vac helicopter. It could make an interesting scene to say the least.
Umm...yes. The infamous Al Mayo, troll of all model railroad forums, has modeled about every gruesome scene you can imagine including grade crossing accidents and plane crashes. He also like to have lot of blood at these scenes. No mental problems there.
I've seen a few pics of guys who have Grade crossing accidents........But they were mostly where they took a Hammer and beat on a Hot Wheels and then just set it beside the track and had a train stop...........
I think the CIOR has one in his Operating Sessions...I know he had at least one...but I think it was more to throw a monkey wrench into the Operation for the Dispatcher to deal with...........
But wow.......There comes a point where you've gone from modeling to just being a sicko.........He probably also likes to ram Locos into each other Head-on......
Holy Crap this is my First Post?...........What a way to start............
I did mention that I drive truck. Peoples stupidity dosnt just happin at rail crossings. I have had many close calls in my 3 year driving carrier. A semi weighs 80,000 lbs fully loaded and trust me I am hardly ever at anything less then that. People have no idea what kinda risk they are taking. They are playing games with there life and the lives of others. Of course in the trucking industry they find ways to blame the truck driver for the crash. Out of all fatal wrecks involving semi's and cars only 3% can be blamed on the truck driver. That by national records. I have been to 47 of the states and I can say without a doubt that its a national wide problem.
Yep, I've seen just about every dumb and careless thing anyone can do with a vehicle. We drove back from Atlanta yesterday in heavy rain for almost the whole distance and I stayed in the right hand lane with the trucks doing 55 so we could both see the road and not hydroplane. Got passed continuously by giant SUV's, pickups, and Beemer's doing 75. Of course, there was giant pile up 10 miles down the road when enough of these people reached critical mass that a crash was inevitable. There were about 10 vehicles involved including two semi's who got caught and couldn't stop in time. I got there just after it happened. One woman was obviously DOA so I treated another guy who was trapped in his BMW, same guy who had roared past me 10 miles earlier, until EMS showed up. I don't know where he had to go in such a hurry but things are going to go a little slower now that he'll spend a couple of months in rehab for at least broken legs and what I suspect was a broken pelvis. Just dumb.
Boilerbuster: You think you got problem drivers. I have a trailertrailer and you would think that most people would recognize the fact that there is probably a non-professional old man driver pulling these 4 to 6 ton things with a pickup. Do they still cut in front of you...danged toot'un...fools! Most all the truckers realize this and give a wide berth. Thanks truckers!
Sorry, I know...off topic...but I feel better
.
I don't worry about it too much though - call me cruel, but I have picked up and learned (in my very short time here too) that a lot of people are dumb. Not all, but a lot.
It's just thinning out the gene pool...
Which is a big stance of mine from local laws, to government, to everyone else - you can't protect people from themselves.
Kyle
I think the rail line predates the subdivisions by about 100 years.
Then The RR has the right do do what they must to earn a living, and the folks that moved and built next to the line need to learn to be railfans!JMO We get the same arguments here too.........
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