Level crossing stupidity...

[keefer]

education, using some suitably graphic images of real-life cases could be an option - but then NR would probably be sued for giving them PTSD

[jim.snowdon]

education, using some suitably graphic images of real-life cases could be an option - but then NR would probably be sued for giving them PTSD

probably by the same parents who should have instilled a proper sense of responsibility in their children in the first place.

 

Jim

[PhilJ W]

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-kent-41066172

 

While not a level crossing, it was a crossing. See if you can work out how it happened. I bet that was a surprise, and I hope the person responsible wasn't too badly injured.

Going by the condition of the bike it looks as if the bike frame came in contact with the live rail. Possibly the bikes chain was the contact point.

[brightspark]

Going by the condition of the bike it looks as if the bike frame came in contact with the live rail. Possibly the bikes chain was the contact point.

I think it was the front wheelas its missing and in the close up shot you can see what looks like spokes. The handlebars look like where the power left the bike and err, ouch someone is going to have trouble with their next Finney kit. My guess is that the idiot wanted to see how well the tyre insulated against the third rail. Ooh is that a lump burnt out the end of the juice rail? Awesome.

 

Andy

[Vanders]

education, using some suitably graphic images of real-life cases could be an option - but then NR would probably be sued for giving them PTSD

Time to start showing The Finishing Line and the like in schools again? It's even on YouTube so it should be easy enough.

[daveyb]

Ignoring the legal issues mentioned above there is one very big difference between a crossroads and a level crossing. At a cross roads a red light means "it's the other drivers "turn" ( even if there is no other driver)". At a level crossing not only is it the train's "turn" but also there actually IS a train coming.

 

For a while Lurgan level crossing on the Northern Ireland Railways network had normal traffic lights but because of a different problem. Lurgan had a set of four traditional gates opetated by a wheel in the signal box but the road was so busy that traffic would not stop to let the signalman close them. The traffic lights resolved the problem .

That set of crossings has a lot more issues than people ignoring the the crossing keeper... the locals regularly placing hoax bombs for one!... there's some real LC stupidity!

Edited September 2, 2017 by daveyb

[Colin_McLeod]

The hoax bombs are normally at nearby Bells Row and Lake Street crossings.

[Jonboy]

http://www.cyclingweekly.com/news/racing/tour-of-britain/taylor-phinney-apologises-disqualified-tour-britain-349236

 

Seems the uci have got their act together at least.

[Coryton]

http://www.cyclingweekly.com/news/racing/tour-of-britain/taylor-phinney-apologises-disqualified-tour-britain-349236

 

Seems the uci have got their act together at least.

 

I'd like to think that under those circumstances I'd have done the right thing....but I can see how this happened and I'm sure I'm not the only person here who has made a decision under pressure and realised immediately afterwards it was the wrong one.

 

It does seem rather unfortunate to have a level crossing on a race course.

[lmsforever]

Level crossings have caused many problems in cycle races for many years ,if a breakaway goes over one and the main bunch is delayed the break is stopped for the same time as the bunches delay this keeps everything fair.Although in the 1950,s riders regularily climbed over the barriers but luckily no one was ever injured and then the UCI brought new regs in during the sixties ,which crossing did Taylor Phinney go through as I only saw two and both sets of rails looked very rusty?

[ejstubbs]

which crossing did Taylor Phinney go through as I only saw two and both sets of rails looked very rusty?

 

The report linked to above says 40k to go so, looking at the stage 2 route, my guess would be Widdrington where the B1337 crosses the ECML.  I really wouldn't want to chance it crossing the ECML in open country!  (There's a yellow road that crosses the ECML on the level immediately after it turns off the A198 from Seton to Longniddry.  Gives me the wig every time I see the crossing as I drive past.  Those IC225s don't hang about along there if they can help it, and if anything were to go wrong...)

 

I'd take a punt on the rusty rails crossings being probably the ones on the A1061 at South Newsham and the A1068 at Choppington.  (Those were closer to the finish and probably more likely to appear in the highlights.)

Edited September 5, 2017 by ejstubbs

[jwealleans]

We don't often see them this way round.  Someone passed me this last night.  The caption with it read "Tuesday 11th April 1950 the 2.20 p m Cleethorpes to Sheffield crashed into Cleethorpes Road level crossing. Nobody was injured".

 

 

If this is 'Cleethorpes Road', I'm guessing it's not in Cleethorpes.  Anyone know where it is?  There's nothing for that date in the Railways Archive.

[Three Cocks Junction]

It is "Cleethorpe Road", the train has almost reached Grimsby Docks station, travelling from Cleethorpes. - Have a look on the map; http://maps.nls.uk/view/114645459.

[kevinlms]

We don't often see them this way round.  Someone passed me this last night.  The caption with it read "Tuesday 11th April 1950 the 2.20 p m Cleethorpes to Sheffield crashed into Cleethorpes Road level crossing. Nobody was injured".

 

Cleethorpes_road_1950.JPG

 

If this is 'Cleethorpes Road', I'm guessing it's not in Cleethorpes.  Anyone know where it is?  There's nothing for that date in the Railways Archive.

Perhaps the wind blew the gates shut?

 

[The Stationmaster]

http://www.cyclingweekly.com/news/racing/tour-of-britain/taylor-phinney-apologises-disqualified-tour-britain-349236

 

Seems the uci have got their act together at least.

 

Shame he also didn't apologise to the rail users he potentially put at risk of delayed journeys and possibly far worse.

[Poggy1165]

I seem to recall trains went through the LC gates at Clayton Bridge on a fairly regular basis. When I was still taking numbers, long, long ago, there were at least two occasions when sets of gates were left smashed up at the side of the track. In that sense at least the new barriers must be an improvement.

[Fat Controller]

I seem to recall trains went through the LC gates at Clayton Bridge on a fairly regular basis. When I was still taking numbers, long, long ago, there were at least two occasions when sets of gates were left smashed up at the side of the track. In that sense at least the new barriers must be an improvement.

Was there a board some distance away instructing train crews to 'Stop and pin down brakes'? There were occasions where crews pinned down insufficient brakes to descend a gradient, so that the weight of the train was too great for the loco brakes alone- I witnessed this several times on the line behind my parents' house. 

[highpeakman]

Today in Lincoln.

 

http://thelincolnite.co.uk/2017/09/video-brayford-wharf-east-closed-level-crossing-barrier-ripped-off/

 

Barrier ripped off by a cyclist? 

 

Edit: Added later: One eyewitness told reporters they saw a cyclist “chance it” at the last minute and become tangled in the barrier.

Edited September 6, 2017 by highpeakman

[Poggy1165]

You have to wonder at the sanity of people who risk a physical collision with a train for the sake of a minute or two.

 

Life is full of risks, and we all take them. But there's a difference between climbing a tree without a hard hat and throwing yourself under a tank. Are people so cosseted, so precious these days that they have lost the skill to make sensible judgements?

[Reorte]

You have to wonder at the sanity of people who risk a physical collision with a train for the sake of a minute or two.

 

Life is full of risks, and we all take them. But there's a difference between climbing a tree without a hard hat and throwing yourself under a tank. Are people so cosseted, so precious these days that they have lost the skill to make sensible judgements?

Are there more of them (proportionally, there are far more people around anyway), or do we just hear more about them since news is so easy to hear about? Hitting a level crossing barrier might've once just made the local paper. There wouldn't be videos around at all of people who went through but nothing got hit. You'd probably only hear of it further afield when people got hurt.

 

That said I wouldn't be surprised if the answer to your question was "yes." Grow up never having to be responsible for yourself and you'll never be able to, although there have always been some people without any sense whatsoever since the dawn of time.

[Coryton]

Are there more of them (proportionally, there are far more people around anyway), or do we just hear more about them since news is so easy to hear about? Hitting a level crossing barrier might've once just made the local paper. There wouldn't be videos around at all of people who went through but nothing got hit. You'd probably only hear of it further afield when people got hurt.

 

That said I wouldn't be surprised if the answer to your question was "yes." Grow up never having to be responsible for yourself and you'll never be able to, although there have always been some people without any sense whatsoever since the dawn of time.

 

I tend to take a dim view of how much common sense there is around these days.

 

However, having recently rented a cabin cruiser for a week and seen how utterly minimal the instruction you get is and how much is left to common sense, it's left me a bit more optimistic. Generally the boats seem to come back upright, with all occupants alive and only minor dents.

[Welly]

We don't often see them this way round.  Someone passed me this last night.  The caption with it read "Tuesday 11th April 1950 the 2.20 p m Cleethorpes to Sheffield crashed into Cleethorpes Road level crossing. Nobody was injured".

 

Cleethorpes_road_1950.JPG

 

If this is 'Cleethorpes Road', I'm guessing it's not in Cleethorpes.  Anyone know where it is?  There's nothing for that date in the Railways Archive.

This reminds me of my deaf friend who was cycling to work in the fog towards the infamous Durham Ox LC in Lincoln during the 1950s. He told me that "something" made him stop just before the gates that were open to the road. Luckily he did because the next second a steam loco crashed through the gates! 

[The Stationmaster]

I tend to take a dim view of how much common sense there is around these days.

 

However, having recently rented a cabin cruiser for a week and seen how utterly minimal the instruction you get is and how much is left to common sense, it's left me a bit more optimistic. Generally the boats seem to come back upright, with all occupants alive and only minor dents.

 

Going slightly off topic (your fault ) one of the best bits of entertainment in our part of the world is going down to the nearest lock and watching the grockles 'navigating' their way towards and through the lock - totally incomprehensible why so many of them totally misunderstand the way in which a boat moves when you turn the steering wheel in any particular direction.

 

PS We used to get regular level crossing 'incidents' in the local 'paper but that has since been converted from an AOC(L) to an AOC(L)+B and its idiot value has declined.  One of the more amusing (unpublished) stories was how a police car drew up to the crossing one day when the red lights weren't showing and one of the coppers got out of the car and went and looked up & down the line before waving his colleague over the crossing.

[talisman56]

Going slightly off topic (your fault ) one of the best bits of entertainment in our part of the world is going down to the nearest lock and watching the grockles 'navigating' their way towards and through the lock - totally incomprehensible why so many of them totally misunderstand the way in which a boat moves when you turn the steering wheel in any particular direction.

 

 

So you're one of the 'gongoozlers' that come (usually with pint in hand if there's a nearby hostelry) watch us experienced canal navigators expertly manoevre our way through the locks, offering all sorts of 'helpful' advice then...

Edited September 7, 2017 by talisman56

[Geoff Endacott]

I have only just come across this which looks like a wrong side failure:

 

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/near-miss-at-magdalen-road-level-crossing-watlington

 

Geoff Endacott