I took out a game warden snow sled with a snowplow train, It was hidden behind a snow pile at a road crossing. Matters not, plow trains don't have very good brakes...
I would sure like to know the explanation behind this. Seriously; what could that officer possibly say that would rationalize his/her decision to leave that SUV park across a set of RR Tracks?
I can understand how this could happen. If I were to guess, this was a vehicle chase-turned foot pursuit. Back when Live PD was still on TV, that's how most of them started. If someone bails from a car, you don't exactly have the time to find a parking spot before you lose the suspect. With all their gear they wear, cops don't really have the speed advantage either. They pretty much get out of the car as soon as the other person opens their door to run. In this case, they just happened to stop on the train tracks.
Having known many law enforcement personnel over my 50+ year career, I have ultimate respect for their dedication to a mission, great folks all! However, their ability to focus solely on the mission at hand sometimes gets in the way of their perceiving peripheral conditions. In this case thinking that this might be a railroad track on which they have parked their cruiser. To clarify their probable thoughts...woods ahead, clear space here, stop cruiser, get out, chase! OOOPS!
Besides, if something happens to the vehicle, you'll just buy him another one. But if you can park across a lane of expressway and think, someone might hit this and die, yet not think that when you park across another kind of road, you ain't bright.
Could it be that trains and railroads are so "Out of sight, out of mind" these days that a police officer doesn't give a second thought as to what he just parked across? That can't be good.
I used to do Operation Lifesaver presentations, and you'd be surprised at the number of "emergency responders" who are totally in the dark on trains........"I have my lights and siren on, the train has to stop right?"
"I'm in government, so I can repeal the laws of physics," right? So when you approach a blind intersection with your disco lights on, and find a semi truck inches from the crosswalk doing thirty, do you yield? Yes? Now multiply that stopping distance by 1500%. No, man, they don't have to stop. They may have to try...
This is simply stunning in its stupidity. None of those employees involved should be allowed to continue working in this field, for anyone. Not even as crossing guards.