San Joaquin train hits pickup truck

[Superliner Diner]

A Sanger-area man driving alone in a pickup was killed Monday afternoon when he let a freight train pass at a railroad crossing west of Selma, then drove around the crossing guard into the path of an Amtrak train heading the opposite direction on a second pair of tracks

Full story is here.

 

[warbonnet]

I see a lot of farmworkers working agriculture through the San Joaquin valley not knowing the risks of RR traffic. Many unmarked grade crossings exist within the actual farming field. I do see more warning signs going up in spanish to try to reduce these accidents.

 

[Amfleet]

There was a similar situation with the Silver Meteor when it hit a logging truck at an unmaked rail crossing and derailed in South Carolina. Even though these crossings are in unpopulated areas, almost anything can happen and some sort of warning system should be put in place.

 

[tp49]

Reading the article made me remember the video of the person (in the Chicago Area I think) who crossed in front of a stopped train only to be hit by the express on the next track over. In this case the deceased allegedly drove around the down crossing gate. I guess you have to have patience sometimes to avoid becoming a patient.

 

[Amtrak Watcher]

I recall reading somewhere that these kinds of instances are very high in the U.S. Why people drive around the gates remains a mystery to me. Kids throwing rocks at trains is another. As someone who grew up in Europe, we were used to trains everywhere, and learned to stay away from them at an early age. I was stuck in my rental car at a mal-functioning gate in North Carolina a few years ago. After about 10 minutes of flashing lights and no trains, it seemed clear there was a malfunction. Nevertheless, while others drove arond tha gates, I truned around and went the other way in search of an alternative route. Does anyone know what mechanism lowers and raises the gates? Is it automatic, or does someone actually control them?

 

[Viewliner]

I would think its automatic and somehow linked to the signals.

 

[Amtrak Watcher]

I ask about how the gates are controlled, because I've noticed many more "stuck" gates in the U.S. than I was used to seeing in Europe. While I don't recall ever seeing a stuck gate in Europe, the instances of gates stuck in the down or do-not cross position, though unusual, seem relatively common here in the U.S. I suspect that too many such gates are eventually regarded as "false alarms," which impatient people are likely to ignore at there peril.

I also recall reading somewhere that jumping in front of trains is a rather popular (if that's the right word) method of suicide in the U.S. Jumping off the subway platform is the corresponding option for depressed Europeans.

 

[mkincaid]

You guys are all such train buffs and you don't know how crossing gates work?

just kidding :lol: Each crossing has an electronic device known as a predictor that can tell how far away the train is and how fast it is moving. The time that it triggers the gate arm and flashing lights can be set electronically, but by law it must be at least 20 seconds in advance of the train's arrival at the crossing. You may notice a metal box near every grade crossing. That's where the predictor system electronics are.

I don't believe it is in any way linked to the signaling or dispatching. For safety reasons, each gate can determine the presence and speed of an approaching train on its own without needing to be connected to any kind of a communication system.

 

[Superliner Diner]

Agreed, lack of patience is part of the problem, and it's also something to do with, in my opinion, not knowing what's coming.

What I mean is that although you must stop at a grade crossing no matter whether it's a mile-long freight train or a single light rail vehicle, you would be more likely to stop and wait if you knew it was just a short train.

I remember back in September of 1989, on the very first day of NJT commuter rail service on the Atlantic City Line (there had been Amtrak trains running there for several months ---- service later cancelled) there was a tragic incident where a woman drove around the gates, was struck by a commuter train, and she and her child were killed. Was her haste worth the result of not taking the what, 20-30 seconds it would take for a locomotive and three coaches to pass the crossing? We'll never know, but perhaps she thought she would have had to wait 5 or 10 minutes for a slow freight to go by.

Unfortunately, there really is no way to inform drivers of how long and how fast the approaching train is. It's obviously hard enough just to get them to stop and honor the warning bells and lights, gates, and the train horns.

 

[Amtrak Watcher]

Good points on the lengths of the wait. You can't drive anywhere in Europe without having to wait at a railroad crossing. But the European trains usually move rather quickly, and they are all rather short. You never see the enormous, long trains we see in the U.S. and Canada.