Driver dies as San Joaquin hits pickup truck

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This woman drove around a line of stopped cars, went around the lowered crossing gates and stopped right on the tracks right in front of the poor Amtrak train. All in all she delayed a train full of Amtrak passengers for 2 Hours that had been running right on time. Why couldn't she at least go a few miles over to the UP valley tracks and delay one of their freight trains! :angry:
 
Aloha

My daughter lives in the Las Angeles area and tell's me she see's someone drive around crossing gates, and the line of cars roughly once a month. In the last five years she has seen 4 impacts.

It is so sad that this person decided to end it, by involving so many others, but what is scary, most of the people that run the danger, have no idea of the results. I am acquainted with the members of the effects crew that shot the public service commercial of a train hitting a van. The van had been rigged with explosives to dramatize the effect. The crash was staged with just a loco moving at 25 mph. The crew was so startled that the did not set off the effects. The van desinigrates on impact.

I know most of us realize the danger how do we convince the general public.

Off Soapbox

Mahalo
 
I think viewing a video should be a requirement as part of the driver licensing process, and any time you are rqeuired to go to a drivers license office for a renewal, and also for any time you have a ticket which is not dismissed. It should include videos of the remains of several vehicles after they were hit by trains, plus one or two actual collisions. And maybe treat running around barriers as a serious criminal offense, large fine and some jail time, even if just on weekends, accompanied by loss of your driver's license for a mandatory minimum length of time, IF THERE IS A TRAIN ACTUALLY COMING when you do it. And maybe require some community service, consisting of standing at a railroad crossing, (preferably one close to where you live), carrying a large sign, during busy traffic periods, for a number of hours on several days, with press coverage, telling the world that you ran around the gates when a train was coming and got caught, that this will happen to them if they do it, and that you're lucky you are alive... Some combination of those things, maybe. The potential embrassment might be more of a deterrent than everything else put together.
 
Actually, if they would put the one-way-only tire destroyer devices, like you have at the exits from parking garages and that sort of thing, on the exit side of the crossing, on each side, it would very effectively prohibit people from going around the gates, since if you went around the gates, your tires would be flattened. And if people knew that would happen, they would stop driving around the gates. Hmmmmmmm......
 
Actually, if they would put the one-way-only tire destroyer devices, like you have at the exits from parking garages and that sort of thing, on the exit side of the crossing, on each side, it would very effectively prohibit people from going around the gates, since if you went around the gates, your tires would be flattened. And if people knew that would happen, they would stop driving around the gates. Hmmmmmmm......
Click to expand...
Can you imagine what that would cost for all the major road/rail crossings in the country! Who would pay for it?
 
Camera enforcement like what is done at the red lights might help too. I like the tire spikes idea best, though!
 
Now that I recall I dont remember what they do in england but I think I know. I remember no barrier but it seemed that all train tracks were above road level (aka they went over bridges). I remember where I lived the train station was on a big hill. Thier might be a few barriers but not many

in JESUS,

Gavin
 
I like the idea of the tire spikes as well. The only concern I would have is that depending upon where at the crossing the spikes were placed you could have a situation where a car with deflated tires would come to rest right in the middle of the tracks and then *splat*.

This also sems to be a major problem in the Central Valley as it seems we come across one of these stories either in the forum or in the local papers here at least once a month of either an Amtrak or freight train hitting a car. There needs to be more education in this part of the state on the dangers.
 
GG-1 said:
Aloha
Too bad I am not a member could not read.
Click to expand...
Membership is free and then you can read the articles for 7 days.

Sadly due to copyright issues we however can't allow people to post the actual articles on the forums.
 
AlanB said:
GG-1 said:
Aloha
Too bad I am not a member could not read.
Click to expand...
Membership is free and then you can read the articles for 7 days.

Sadly due to copyright issues we however can't allow people to post the actual articles on the forums.
Click to expand...
Aloha Alan

Unfortunately their membership is not free, you must allow their popup adds and provide an e-mail address. Last time I accesed one of these "free member" newspaper places I received so many e-mails I retired the address.

Not all use the access improperly I am just gun shy. I woul prefer to know what is in store.

Mahalo for your concern.

Eric
 
GG-1 said:
AlanB said:
GG-1 said:
Aloha
Too bad I am not a member could not read.
Click to expand...
Membership is free and then you can read the articles for 7 days.

Sadly due to copyright issues we however can't allow people to post the actual articles on the forums.
Click to expand...
Aloha Alan

Unfortunately their membership is not free, you must allow their popup adds and provide an e-mail address. Last time I accesed one of these "free member" newspaper places I received so many e-mails I retired the address.

Not all use the access improperly I am just gun shy. I woul prefer to know what is in store.

Mahalo for your concern.

Eric
Click to expand...
Aloha GG1,

Well pop-ups are easy to deal with, just get a pop-up killer. Or if you're running Windows XP, download SP2 and you'll get a free pop-up killer.

With regard to the email address, just do what I do. I went to MSN.com and established a free Hotmail account. Anytime that I need to give out an email address for something like this, I give out my Hotmail address instead of my real address. This way all spam goes there and not into my normal mail box.
 
>>Unfortunately their membership is not free, you must allow their popup adds and provide an e-mail address.<<

There is no fee involved for the New York Times; I have been reading it online for years and have never been asked to pay a cent. Neither have I ever had any pop-up ads, but I do have a pop-up blocker, which I would expect most would also have, in this day and age. B)
 

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