Fed Ex Ground driver tried to beat Amtrak (Not sure if it was the 19 or the 20) Somewhere near Breman GA yesterday. I was searching but I can't find the exact location on Google maps. https://www.fox5atlanta.com/news/j-davis-road-amtrak-train-collision
Can't click [Like]. Someone lost a son, husband or brother and for nothing. I think that motorists sometimes fail to realize that a higher speed passenger train is bearing down upon them, leading to fatal miscalculations.
It doesn't make any difference if it is a high speed passenger train or a slow speed freight train - highway vehicles will LOSE and in many cases the operator and/or passengers of the vehicle will lose their lives. It is all within the vehicle operators direct control.
I agree totally. Here on the Coast we have lost many due to blind stupidity. The stupidest, and most humorous was witnessed by my wife from her office window. An interchange from ICG to CSX was approaching US HWY 49. Gates were down across all six lanes, lights flashing, bells ringing. A semi loaded with grain decides he's more important so started to wind around the gates. Obviously the ICG engineer decided it was time for a lesson in reality, so at five mph the grain trailer was rolled, very slowly.
I agree of course. I was thinking of informative signs quickly posted at chosen highway crossings in Illinois decades ago as a result of a new Amtrak train being added (or added freight trains) on a light density line. After an increase in crossing collisions, authorities found that local motorists "knew" the few existing train times and ignored crossing safety outside of those times. The new signs were erected to alert motorists of the new trains. People are creatures of habit and it can lead to quick trouble when unexpected things happen.
Nothing says 'creatures of habit' like the number of crossing accidents Brightline has had in South Florida since it started operations. https://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/t...0220919-q7m3pbdaczed7irzsym76yb7oe-story.html
I always wonder when I see or hear about crashes like this if the driver has never been around trains before. We had a lot of them where I grew up, to the point where Saturday mornings in the summer were usually spent either fishing or sitting by the tracks waiting to wave at trains. Most tracks around here didn't even have gates until late 80s/early 90s (if there were even lights and not just the b&w 'X' on a back road), but we all had the sense to not try to drag race the Chessie or a NS. I don't remember hearing about a single accident in my 47yrs happening anywhere around here and we're smack dab in Redneck Central where IQs aren't always a focus, and where plenty are so hammered focusing isn't an option to begin with. You just don't even think it. Pair that with companies like FedEx and other couriers hiring en masse for holiday temp help, I just have to wonder. Loss of life is always tragic, and am sure FedEx is not loving the optics, but seriously... do people just not know better than to mess with a train because they've never been around them? I honestly don't get how else this happens.
With FedEX most of their delivery trucks we see on the road are not owned or staffed by FedEx. Most local delivery is performed by outfits that FedEx has contracted to make their deliveries. The drivers are employees of the contractor. When you get the opportunity to see a FedEx delivery truck, check on the side of it for the name of the contractor. To my knowledge, UPS delivery drivers are in fact UPS employees driving UPS owned equipment.
yeah, wow - that's a little scary to think about from an accountability aspect. I worked for UPS in the late 90s my first couple of years of "college" (let's just say I had fun and that's about all I got accomplished back then hahaha), actually had to leave because of the strike in 97. Had no idea FedEx wasn't really FedEx, because you're spot-on about UPS.
Just read that Brightline will commence 110 MPH testing on PTC systems between Cocoa and Orlando, with an eventual operation at 125 MPH? Something about this being a "sealed" corridor free of crossings, unlike their other route. I don't understand it all.
Even if it is "sealed", I am sure that someone will find a way to get their vehicle on the tracks, or just trespass and.....
Yep. I knew a guy who worked for ATK when I lived in NJ and he told me a story about an ATK train on the corridor that hit a trespasser at over 100 MPH. The train was then heavily braked and made an emergency stop at a station platform ..... with the trespasser's remains smashed on the pilot. Upon seeing the horrid site, some standees on the platform vomited and all turned away. A terrible way to start the day. Ugh.
When the corridor gets 'sealed' there will be any number of former road crossings that will be closed. Mix together O'dark Thirty, adult beverages and creatures of habit and there you have a vehicle on the tracks. They will have to WORK to do it, but idiots actually shine when it comes time to 'out wit' the devices created to save them from themselves.
Some recent work in a nearby city resulted in a new pedestrian-friendly bridge over two rail lines. The former grade crossing has been removed and chain link fencing has been added to prevent pedestrian traffic. However, use of the new bridge will require walking another block or two. I was talking to a CSX man there and he said someone has already cut holes in the fencing.
No surprise from my viewpoint. Too many lazy people who won't walk a few more feet. Too many entitled people, who have granted themselves some sort of rights to continue crossing there...
In the Lansdowne section of Baltimore, the B&O built a pedestrian underpass under their 4 tracks at the location. About a decade ago the local community had CSX block off and close the underpass as it had become a location for muggings and other illegal activities. Anything 'good' can be ruined by a bad element.
