Last night at Stockton, California at a crossing, The signal arms were down. A freight train was stopped just short of the crossing road on the siding.. Cars started piling up when one driver got impatient, went around the crossing gate and just past the freight train and got clobbered by a passenger train coming down the main line.. Two people killed and one in serious condition. This was on the late news last night. Don't know any other detail but this pretty well tells it all. In this case I feel sorry for the train crew and the family of the people in the car.
Darwin strikes again! Another case and point where the crossing was protected with signals and gates and another moron still managed to remove themselves from the gene pool. Tha sad thing is that the majority of the other cars probably would have stopped at the ctossing had it only been protected with crossbucks. People nowadays are too impatient and place too much expectation in technology to protect us when often enough, a little common sense would do just as well or better.
Just how clear do we have to make it that you DO NOT cross when the crossing gates are down? Do we seriously need to put gates on BOTH Sides so these people get the idea? And small depressable curbs? AND tire Spikes???!!!!! The only time I could support driving through a crossing gate was many years ago when I was about 14 with my grandparents up on the desert plataeu near St Johns, Arizona. We were coming home from a vacation in Colorado, and earlier in the day, a lightning storm went through the area. These storms typically strike the crossing gates, and make them come down. And at this crossing is more of a really long siding that brings coal from the Mainline near I-40 down to the powerplants in this region. There is clear visibility for about five miles in each direction, and that day there were no trains in either direction. So then, I would say it might be OK rather then to sit there for a couple of hours for a technician to come out and reset the gates. But in Any other case, especially if the crossing is on a piece of track that is well used, in any high traffic area, or especially if you cannot see down both tracks, DO NOT Proceed until you are certain there isn't a train coming, and this only because you have personally checked both approaches...BEFORE you start to cross the track! Moral of the story? Don't ever run into a train crossing blind. you just might end up Dead wrong in your assumption that there isn't a train just because you cannot see one right in front you. If you do look and see there is a train coming, and it is about 100 to 1000 yards away, trust me, if your car is anything like my dad's Pacer right before my brother killed it (the genious pressed the gas and the break in unison), you aren't going to make it. Period. [ 09 May 2002, 03:28: Message edited by: Benny ]
