Ryan
Court Jester
There's nothing moral or immoral about banning devices that distract you from driving. Are the FRA regs against cell phones in the cab legislating morality? What about the FAA's sterile cockpit rules?
Wow! I'm having a hard time communicating. I'm NOT suggesting that BANNING cell phone use while driving is immoral; rather that USING a cell phone while driving IS. The crack about legislating morality was just my way of saying that if someone is ........ (you fill in the blank) enough to actually use one while driving, then a law against it is unlikely to change the behavior. However, I wouldn't mind seeing my theory shot down; i.e., seeing that putting a few people behind bars did change the behavior.There's nothing moral or immoral about banning devices that distract you from driving. Are the FRA regs against cell phones in the cab legislating morality? What about the FAA's sterile cockpit rules?
Because dear child, one day one of the vehicles being driven by one of these barrier dodging fools will end up under the wheels of the loco pulling the train you or someone you care about (if indeed you do) and I doubt you will be saying the same thing then. Or maybe you will, I don't know.Why do we want them safer? To deprive the human race of a little more natural selection?
So are you advocating a cull of the lame, sick and diseased members of society then? Or do we just get rid of the social cripples?I'm sorry, Neil, but unlike far too many of my human friends, I am not such a hypocrite that my opinions change when things happen to me. I consider the rare situation where a train gets heavily delayed due to at-grade collision related derailments or when someon onboard actually gets killed from it (even rarer), to be a reasonable price for the preservation of natural selection. If it happened to someone I love, and I do love people (although most assuredly not you!) I would be very sad about the loss of that person. But I would not consider that the "safety issue" that caused it would be at fault. Just the idiot that ran the crossing.
Unfortunately, sometimes real morons take some of the better ones with them. Its unfortunate, but unavoidable.
We leave too many stupid people alive. Idiocy (and other things that make you unfit for survival) is supposed to kill people off naturally. That is the way we evolved to this point. Preventing it is like putting a brake on evolution.
The long line of cars were only the ones heading north. So, possibly, it was the signals for the other side of the tracks; the one for the south bound vehicular traffic, wasn't working?Caitlyn Holder, who lives about a mile from the crash site, was stopped in a line of cars heading north and waiting to cross the tracks when the accident occurred.
"None of the lights were working. They weren't flashing, which for this spot, is no surprise," she said. "It happens constantly.
Above quoted from newsobserver report...
Why was there a long line of cars stopped if they weren't working?
So, Caitlyn Holder was lying when she reported as an eyewitness, they weren't working? Why would she lie?The Highway Patrol determined warning lights and bells and the crossing gate functioned properly before the Dec. 22 crash that killed a mother and her 5-year-old son.
GML, this is a comment about natural selection, not about your post or your thoughts.I'm sorry, Neil, but unlike far too many of my human friends, I am not such a hypocrite that my opinions change when things happen to me. I consider the rare situation where a train gets heavily delayed due to at-grade collision related derailments or when someon onboard actually gets killed from it (even rarer), to be a reasonable price for the preservation of natural selection. If it happened to someone I love, and I do love people (although most assuredly not you!) I would be very sad about the loss of that person. But I would not consider that the "safety issue" that caused it would be at fault. Just the idiot that ran the crossing.
Unfortunately, sometimes real morons take some of the better ones with them. Its unfortunate, but unavoidable.
We leave too many stupid people alive. Idiocy (and other things that make you unfit for survival) is supposed to kill people off naturally. That is the way we evolved to this point. Preventing it is like putting a brake on evolution.
That's definately not true that NC has the highest percentage. I agree that we need to fix the number of accidents, but NC definately is not on top. I just pulled up the FRA stats for NC and Florida, and Florida wins hands down.North Carolina has the highest percent of Amtrak accidents, this needs to be fixed.
Total Highway Rail Accidents
Yr 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09
NC 8 6 7 7 4 6 5 6 8 9
FL 15 10 8 12 11 10 11 12 12 7
Is this really true. There are several requirements for a grade crossing for it be be totally horn-free. I know that quad-gates must be installed so drivers can't go around them. Plus some kind of obstacle in the center of the road. Also I believe there are indications to the engineer so he/she can tell if the gates are working properly or if there is still a car stuck in the middle of the tracks. Therefore they can sound the horn if needed.1. Whistle ban. Increases at-grade accidents by about 25%.
I would argue that these are.being stupid, not being able to judge the speed of a train
One way that an engineer can tell if a car is stuck on a crossing is by looking out the front window and seeing a car stuck on the crossing. I suppose some sort of indicator can be used to inform an engineer of a stuck car at a crossing on blind curve (and I believe such indicators are used in some places in Europe), but I'm pretty sure that even if an engineer finds out there is a car stuck on the tracks at the crossing in the middle of the next bend, he won't be able to do too much to prevent an accident, unless the train is already going very slow at the time.Is this really true. There are several requirements for a grade crossing for it be be totally horn-free. I know that quad-gates must be installed so drivers can't go around them. Plus some kind of obstacle in the center of the road. Also I believe there are indications to the engineer so he/she can tell if the gates are working properly or if there is still a car stuck in the middle of the tracks. Therefore they can sound the horn if needed.1. Whistle ban. Increases at-grade accidents by about 25%.
It depends what you mean by "excessive". Seeing as a lot of your countrymen are too terminally dim to recognize red lights and a barrier down in front of some rail tracks as a warning sign, then even adding 2 extra barriers to the crossing might stop some of the fools mashing themselves up.Neil, I did not suggest culling anyone. I merely suggest not going to excessive measures to prevent them from culling themselves.
If you could look over the shoulder of the engineer, and on some trains in push mode, you can effectively do so, you would see how rediculous this statement is.One way that an engineer can tell if a car is stuck on a crossing is by looking out the front window and seeing a car stuck on the crossing.
I am aware of what it means. People who do not drive a car in a fashion that keeps them paying attention and making intelligent, and correct decisions are less suited to being in a world where automobiles exist then those of us who make more of an effort to drive properly. They are more likely to get killed then those of us who are more careful. They are thus naturally selected based on lacking the trait of being careful when driving an automobile.GML, this is a comment about natural selection, not about your post or your thoughts.I'm sorry, Neil, but unlike far too many of my human friends, I am not such a hypocrite that my opinions change when things happen to me. I consider the rare situation where a train gets heavily delayed due to at-grade collision related derailments or when someon onboard actually gets killed from it (even rarer), to be a reasonable price for the preservation of natural selection. If it happened to someone I love, and I do love people (although most assuredly not you!) I would be very sad about the loss of that person. But I would not consider that the "safety issue" that caused it would be at fault. Just the idiot that ran the crossing.
Unfortunately, sometimes real morons take some of the better ones with them. Its unfortunate, but unavoidable.
We leave too many stupid people alive. Idiocy (and other things that make you unfit for survival) is supposed to kill people off naturally. That is the way we evolved to this point. Preventing it is like putting a brake on evolution.
Y'all are using the term natural selection incorrectly. Look in a biology textbook and you will find something like the wikipedia definition, "Natural selection is the process by which heritable traits that make it more likely for an organism to survive and successfully reproduce become more common in a population over successive generations. It is a key mechanism of evolution."
So running your car into a train is bad for everyone involved, but it probably is not a good example of natural selection. Being distracted, being stupid, not being able to judge the speed of a train, and trying to commit suicide may be factors linked to accidents, but these are not heritable traits.
It happens. It is unfortunate. That doesn't mean it shouldn't.It depends what you mean by "excessive". Seeing as a lot of your countrymen are too terminally dim to recognize red lights and a barrier down in front of some rail tracks as a warning sign, then even adding 2 extra barriers to the crossing might stop some of the fools mashing themselves up.Neil, I did not suggest culling anyone. I merely suggest not going to excessive measures to prevent them from culling themselves.
Despite your rather lame claim that it is ok for these fools to kill themselves (and others) on the railway, the fallout from these incidents that keyboard clowns like you never will have to deal with means that it is generally desirable to keep road traffic and trains apart. I am sure that even a supposed self claimed social outcast like yourself might get fed up with pulling bits of body from mangled cars if you were a police or paramedic worker, I know I actively dislike working on rail vehicles involved in such incidents and that comes from years of practical experience, not just talking crap on a forum.
Plus there is the loss of rail vehicles due to damage in these incidents, even you can recognise that Amtrak has not enough vehicles at the moment without having them stopped for collision and derailment repairs? Then there is the appearance to the traveling public that Amtrak is an unsafe way to travel, even though these events are very rarely, if ever, Amtrak's fault. People just see a pile of wreckage on the TV and assume trains are dangerous.
One day one of these barrier dodging clowns will cause a major accident, one train derails and then ends up being hit by one traveling the other way or other random permutation, just you wait and see.
Check out 'Upton Nervert' to see what happens when a car is where it shouldn't be. Even someone such as yourself might realise it was not a nice thing to happen. Or maybe not, maybe pretending to be like that makes you feel better about yourself.
If you could look over the shoulder of the engineer, and on some trains in push mode, you can effectively do so, you would see how rediculous this statement is.If you could look over the shoulder of the engineer, and on some trains in push mode, you can effectively do so, you would see how rediculous this statement is.One way that an engineer can tell if a car is stuck on a crossing is by looking out the front window and seeing a car stuck on the crossing.
Looking down the track, you will see vehicles moving across the road crossings ahead, some slow, some faster some instop and go mode, and by the time you figure out that someone is on the crossing with the gates coming down and will not get clear, it is simply to late to get stopped before you get to the crossing.
Maybe you better re-read what I said. By the time you realize by looking out the window that a car will not clear the crossing it is too late to get stopped, unless you are moving really slow. A train does not perform the same as an automobile.If you could look over the shoulder of the engineer, and on some trains in push mode, you can effectively do so, you would see how rediculous this statement is.If you could look over the shoulder of the engineer, and on some trains in push mode, you can effectively do so, you would see how rediculous this statement is.One way that an engineer can tell if a car is stuck on a crossing is by looking out the front window and seeing a car stuck on the crossing.
Looking down the track, you will see vehicles moving across the road crossings ahead, some slow, some faster some instop and go mode, and by the time you figure out that someone is on the crossing with the gates coming down and will not get clear, it is simply to late to get stopped before you get to the crossing.
George, if you had read the rest of my comment, you would see how ridiculous your statement is.
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