Deadly accident involving freight train and float with wounded vets and families
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2012/1...probed-111612/
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Even if the train crew "saw the float approaching" they wouldn't have been able to stop in time, most likely. I saw a train that had hit an RV trailer that hadn't been able to stop for another 2 miles. There was a toilet sticking out of the front of the train and the aluminum sides of the trailer were completely wrapped around the front like a wet blanket. The truck was still back at the crossing.
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Once you put the train into emergency, nothing more you can do except sound the horn.
I feel very bad for the crew. This sort of thing is NEVER the crew's fault. Now, those of you in communities which have passed laws preventing trains from sounding horns; What the **** are you thinking? |
If you can't clear the crossing, don't enter it.
IMHO the driver of the truck should be charged with reckless homicide. But he probably feels bad, and is unlikely to do it again so what's the point? |
need more information
From ABC, "'Sirens from the police cars in the parade may have drowned out the sound of the approaching train,' Vatankhah said." and "Patricia Howle was sitting traffic with her daughter watching the parade go by when she heard the train honking its horn." and "A Union Pacific spokesman Tom Lange said it appeared safety devices at the crash site were working. But there were conflicting reports by eyewitnesses about whether the gates went down at the crossing when the train approached."
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Union Pacific's locomotive fleet (except some yard goats) all have video event recorders triggered by horn and brake application. The NTSB will be able to sort this out. |
fallible memories
In general I agree about the unreliability of eyewitnesses, and I agree about the NTSB. However, one witness remembers it thusly: "'I saw the truck crossing the tracks. About halfway across the gates started coming down. The truck tried to blow his horn to get the other people in front of him out of the way. The gates actually hit the first people on the trailer,' witness Michael Briggs said." The problem may have been that the traffic ahead of the truck kept him from moving, and the gates came down after.
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That driver should be charged with the deaths of his pasengers. |
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Fox Lake
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This was obviously a local parade, the organizers surely knew it was crossing an active rail line. There's no reason there couldn't have been a cop there clearing the parade vehicles to cross the tracks one by one. However, even if they'd never thought of such a provision there's ultimately no excuse for the driver; that was simply negligent. |
I don't envy the investigators who are going to have to look at that camera footage.
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OK, I confirmed today that this crossing was within a five-mile-wide quiet zone in which trains are prohibited from sounding their horns for crossings.
This ordinance murdered those people. Had this train been blowing for every crossing from miles away, nobody would have been surprised by a train, and the float would likely not have been on that crossing. |
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DUI at the very least.
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Plus, who stops ON the tracks ever? He should've stopped on the other side when he saw he couldn't clear the tracks. |
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So that makes two drivers who should be prosecuted. I think a consensus is emerging on JREF: Americans continue to make stupid mistakes because the punishments for doing so are not harsh enough. |
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My other choice was a woman driver. I've mentioned observing LOTS of these stopping just after the tracks here... At least, with the driver's compartment off the tracks. The back end of the vehicle is still across at least one rail. Possibly they expect any train to swerve around them? I keep a video camera close at hand when I see this, to record what happens if the lights go flashing, the warning bells go off, and the gate comes down, as I've mentioned previously. . The crossing gate in this instance did come down ON the float. |
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In the situation I described as being ready to video, I fully expect a vehicle in front of the car on the tracks when the lights and bells go off to NOT move, because they'd have to run a red light. :( |
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He saw all of the warnings and still decided to drive onto the tracks. Some noise ordinance isn't at fault. |
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Evidence of "liberal idiots"?
The local very conservative rag, AV Press ran a letter from an outraged Romney supporter noting that conservatives were "Christian", while liberals were "christian?". Redneck land out here. |
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The following idea is not yet practical and merely a fantasy of mine,
Every five years or so people would have to come to the DMV and take a test to make sure they still have the skills and abilities to safely drive on public roads. Rather than have them drive around town with an inspector in the passenger seat, all drivers would be placed in a simulator - one of those good ones with screens on the sides and back as well as in front. The first situation would involve driving on a divided highway. If someone slows down to look at an accident on the other side, then the person fails. If someone stops on railroad tracks, the person fails. If someone tries to beat a crossing signal, the person fails. If someones drive 40 mph through a school zone, the person fails. ETA: Also, let the people take their cell phones into the testing area - then call or text them. |
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I'd add tailgating, failing to use turn signals (they aren't just there for festiveness!), as well as slowing down while trying to merge into Interstate traffic (going 35mph does NOT make it easier to enter 70mph traffic!). |
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I do not think a custodial sentence would be a good service here either, but definitely loss of license and the usual non-imprisonment consequences a criminal violation comes with. Does the driver likely feel guilty and remorseful? I would expect so. Is that enough? I do not feel so. |
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It really is just this simple. Lights, horns, whistles, cops, gates, none of that is relevant. They only exist to attempt to dissuade the people who are so brain-dead that they ignore this simple rule. A while back I noticed that rows of plastic uprights were being installed between lanes for about 40 ft. either side of all the two lane RR xings around here. This was because, in spite of gates, horns, bells, and whistles, people were still trying to get across the tracks ... by going into the other lane after oncoming traffic had stopped for the warning systems. You can't cure stupid. |
The train spreads stupid along the tracks for a 1/4 mile, most of the time.
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