Level crossing stupidity...

[jamie92208]

20 minutes ago, johnofwessex said:

Any equivalent of the lineside phones we have in the UK in the USA

I think they all have a phone number and a location code on the equipment cabinets, as well as the name of the owning railroad.

 

Jamie

[big jim]

You can imagine his boss next morning

 

anything unusual happen in last nights shift 

 

erm no

 

take a seat

[corneliuslundie]

I wasn't sure "Like" was the right box to tick, but thanks for posting. Already lost presumably before he got to the crossing.

Jonathan

[PhilJ W]

Fed-X drivers have the same reputation in the US as Stobart's drivers have in the UK, not the brightest jewels in the box.

[Andy Hayter]

1 hour ago, corneliuslundie said:

I wasn't sure "Like" was the right box to tick, but thanks for posting. Already lost presumably before he got to the crossing.

Jonathan

 

Maybe not lost.  There look to be a lot of cordoned off bits of road and if he was relying on his sat nav he could have come to the crossing before realising that the only way on was back the way he came, if the sat nav was not updated with the road works.  However the turning circle was a couple of feet too small.  He was then in a real bu@@ers muddle.  Reversing back would have been very difficult from the point where he realised he could not do the 180 with a real probability of the trailers jack knifing.  In fact some of his earlier moves may have been to try and do just that.  

[newbryford]

28 minutes ago, Andy Hayter said:

 

Maybe not lost.  There look to be a lot of cordoned off bits of road and if he was relying on his sat nav he could have come to the crossing before realising that the only way on was back the way he came, if the sat nav was not updated with the road works.  However the turning circle was a couple of feet too small.  He was then in a real bu@@ers muddle.  Reversing back would have been very difficult from the point where he realised he could not do the 180 with a real probability of the trailers jack knifing.  In fact some of his earlier moves may have been to try and do just that.  

 

The road wasn't too narrow to continue, as that's what he did with the second trailer. He turned that around somewhere ahead.

 

I know we can't see from the camera angle, but the road is pretty straight beyond the crossing and he would have seen that from his cab.

(I also know it's straight, as I should have been in Ashland about 3 months ago and had already thoroughly researched where Sunday lunch was to be taken next to the tracks (until CV-19 put paid to that idea)

[melmerby]

Here's the Google (cab) view and you can also see there is a phone number plate on the barrier mechanism:

https://goo.gl/maps/AaxTnQmmSBf4xwg76

Edited November 16, 2020 by melmerby

[melmerby]

41 minutes ago, newbryford said:

 

The road wasn't too narrow to continue, as that's what he did with the second trailer. He turned that around somewhere ahead.

 

I know we can't see from the camera angle, but the road is pretty straight beyond the crossing and he would have seen that from his cab.

(I also know it's straight, as I should have been in Ashland about 3 months ago and had already thoroughly researched where Sunday lunch was to be taken next to the tracks (until CV-19 put paid to that idea)

And visit Tony's Trains?

[newbryford]

5 minutes ago, melmerby said:

And visit Tony's Trains?

 

Probably.......

Although it's actually Tiny Tims Trains...

Edited November 16, 2020 by newbryford

[Andy Hayter]

6 hours ago, newbryford said:

 

The road wasn't too narrow to continue, as that's what he did with the second trailer. He turned that around somewhere ahead.

 

I know we can't see from the camera angle, but the road is pretty straight beyond the crossing and he would have seen that from his cab.

(I also know it's straight, as I should have been in Ashland about 3 months ago and had already thoroughly researched where Sunday lunch was to be taken next to the tracks (until CV-19 put paid to that idea)

 

It looks to as if he has driven into the coned off construction area with that second trailer* and in turning around he may well have had a tighter turn than the one presented when he had 2 trailers behind.

 

* certainly there are barrels both sides of his entry point and it looks to me as if the truck and trailer both drop off the hard area.

[Wickham Green too]

12 hours ago, jamie92208 said:

I think they all have a phone number and a location code on the equipment cabinets, as well as the name of the owning railroad.

 

Jamie

Do we know that the guy DIDN'T phone up at some point ? ......... however many times I watch that video I can't see any train in the vicinity !

[PhilJ W]

1 hour ago, Wickham Green too said:

Do we know that the guy DIDN'T phone up at some point ? ......... however many times I watch that video I can't see any train in the vicinity !

Or just lucky that no trains were due.

[melmerby]

1 hour ago, Wickham Green too said:

Do we know that the guy DIDN'T phone up at some point ? ......... however many times I watch that video I can't see any train in the vicinity !

It's 1:40am and there are less trains around than there would normally be due to Covid-19.

Last night there was a train Southbound at 1:54 and another Northbound at 2:06 prior to that nothing for hours.

IMHO he was just lucky it was quiet

 

[kevinlms]

17 hours ago, Andy Hayter said:

 

Maybe not lost.  There look to be a lot of cordoned off bits of road and if he was relying on his sat nav he could have come to the crossing before realising that the only way on was back the way he came, if the sat nav was not updated with the road works.  However the turning circle was a couple of feet too small.  He was then in a real bu@@ers muddle.  Reversing back would have been very difficult from the point where he realised he could not do the 180 with a real probability of the trailers jack knifing.  In fact some of his earlier moves may have been to try and do just that.  

So what made him think that doing a U Turn on a railway crossing was a great idea? No excuse whatsoever for an appalling decision to break several road rules, even if the U Turn was actually achievable.

I'm sure a call to the local police for assistance in turning, anywhere, would be preferable. If the police decided that the only place to actually turn was the crossing, hopefully they would have the sense to alert the railway company to stop trains.

[kevinlms]

5 hours ago, melmerby said:

It's 1:40am and there are less trains around than there would normally be due to Covid-19.

Last night there was a train Southbound at 1:54 and another Northbound at 2:06 prior to that nothing for hours.

IMHO he was just lucky it was quiet

 

So he knew the train timetable? Freight trains often run hours early or late. Most rail passengers don't rely 100% on timetables!

I agree, he was just lucky and hope his luck just run out, with a driver disqualification.

[talisman56]

Some Level Crossing shenanegans in the Paddington programme last night on C5.

 

A couple phoned up saying the LC wasn't working and they were nearly (?) hit by a train. The RailTrack guy got the Level Crossing techs out and the CCTV from the front of the train and proved the lights were working and the barriers down. By this time the couple were enjoying their lunch in the nearby pub...

 

Presumably the couple were too bent on their pub lunch to notice any LC apparatus.

Edited November 17, 2020 by talisman56

[Andy Hayter]

23 minutes ago, kevinlms said:

So what made him think that doing a U Turn on a railway crossing was a great idea? No excuse whatsoever for an appalling decision to break several road rules, even if the U Turn was actually achievable.

I'm sure a call to the local police for assistance in turning, anywhere, would be preferable. If the police decided that the only place to actually turn was the crossing, hopefully they would have the sense to alert the railway company to stop trains.

 

From what I see he had no choice.

He can't turn right that is blocked off.

He can't go straight on because that is also blocked off - even though he eventually does take the last trailer that way.

He can't turn left because the road markings clearly show both lanes coming towards the junction.

 

Hobson's choice.  Turn round and go back from whence he came.

 

What we don't know is what road signage there may have been to discourage him from arriving at the junction/crossing in the first place.

[Talltim]

3 minutes ago, Andy Hayter said:

 

From what I see he had no choice.

He can't turn right that is blocked off.

He can't go straight on because that is also blocked off - even though he eventually does take the last trailer that way.

He can't turn left because the road markings clearly show both lanes coming towards the junction.

 

Hobson's choice.  Turn round and go back from whence he came.

 

What we don't know is what road signage there may have been to discourage him from arriving at the junction/crossing in the first place.

I kinda agree with you, he was a bit stuck (If you assume that his journey off camera to the right was actually into the road works). However he should have stopped before he got on the crossing, then worked out what to do.

[petethemole]

15 minutes ago, talisman56 said:

Some Level Crossing shenanegans in the Paddington programme last night on C5.

 

A couple phoned up saying the LC wasn't working and they were nearly (?) hit by a train. The RailTrack guy got the Level Crossing techs out and the CCTV from the front of the train and proved the lights were working and the barriers down. By this time the couple were enjoying their lunch in the nearby pub...

 

Presumably the couple were too bent on their pub lunch to notice any LC apparatus.

I saw that.  Given the time the MOM quoted between the barriers coming down and the train arriving (25-30 sec), I worked out that the couple had probably crossed the line quite safely before the crossing activated but were surprised that a train came so soon afterwards.

[melmerby]

The road through the crossing wasn't totally blocked to him, traffic had been using it like that for a few days previously.

Exactly how wide the access was we'll never know.

It looked to me as if he was going straight across and for some reason at the last minute decided not to.

Maybe he thought his trailers would not get through without striking something?

However what he did on a level crossing was IMHO utter stupidity, after the attempted U-turn the two trailers looked like they were corner to corner and were not going anywhere like that.

 

Ashland is famous for incidents with trains and he could easily have taken first prize, if a train had come.

They aren't normally particularly slow at that crossing probably 40-50mph is typical

Edited November 17, 2020 by melmerby

[melmerby]

1 hour ago, petethemole said:

I saw that.  Given the time the MOM quoted between the barriers coming down and the train arriving (25-30 sec), I worked out that the couple had probably crossed the line quite safely before the crossing activated but were surprised that a train came so soon afterwards.

They said they had parked the car when the train went through!

[Busmansholiday]

1 hour ago, petethemole said:

I saw that.  Given the time the MOM quoted between the barriers coming down and the train arriving (25-30 sec), I worked out that the couple had probably crossed the line quite safely before the crossing activated but were surprised that a train came so soon afterwards.

I liked the way the S&T bloke interrogated the touch sensitive display using the blade end of a screwdriver.

[melmerby]

27 minutes ago, Busmansholiday said:

I liked the way the S&T bloke interrogated the touch sensitive display using the blade end of a screwdriver.

If he has bananas like me that's probably quite sensible

[Andymsa]

How to make your self look a complete idiot on national TV, that said there was something very familiar about the male driver.

Edited November 17, 2020 by Andymsa

[Wickham Green too]

6 hours ago, talisman56 said:

Some Level Crossing shenanegans in the Paddington programme last night on C5.

 

A couple phoned up saying the LC wasn't working and they were nearly (?) hit by a train. The RailTrack guy got the Level Crossing techs out and the CCTV from the front of the train and proved the lights were working and the barriers down. By this time the couple were enjoying their lunch in the nearby pub...

 

Presumably the couple were too bent on their pub lunch to notice any LC apparatus.

Unfortunately the CCTV didn't show where the couple were when they thought the lights weren't working ...................... must admit the Network Rail guy dismissing their claim as just a trick of the light was a little worrying  -  it was a right-side trick of the light in this instance but could be a wrong-side one next time !

 

Nice shot of a minimalist HST 'set' !