Level crossing stupidity...

[Michael Hodgson]

1 hour ago, boxbrownie said:

If that’s a breakdown service/security whatever they sure get there faster than we ever could!

 

Maybe they just got lucky.

Not just at this location.  Seems  US practice must be to fit some sort of alarm system wired to a company with tow trucks? 

Does that explain the bongs?  Mr Plod seems to get there quickly too.

 

We are both assuming that they haven't just edited out a long gap in the clip where nothing happened though.

As these seem to be regular occurrences at certain locations, I would have thought there must be some  feature of the crossings that makes it difficult for motorists to see that they are taking a wrong turning. so some better lighting or road signage might be desirable.

[SamThomas]

On 14/11/2021 at 18:20, Grimly Feendish said:

A bit of an oopsie here!

 

 

 

https://jalopnik.com/amazon-delivery-van-cut-in-half-by-amtrak-train-1848054297

 

When I first looked at this my initial thoughts were "what a shoddyly built vehicle". Then thinking about it maybe it was a good thing that the cab broke off instead of being dragged & shredded down the track.

[SamThomas]

On 15/11/2021 at 21:18, F-UnitMad said:

Because Brummie & Black Country are completely different and distinct accents/dialects. No one from the Black Country sounds terminally suicidal.

Not only that the accents in the Black Country towns varied a little even though they were next door to one another.

 

Lets not forget the "Yam Yams".

[PhilJ W]

2 hours ago, boxbrownie said:

If that’s a breakdown service/security whatever they sure get there faster than we ever could!

 

Maybe they just got lucky.

 

1 hour ago, Michael Hodgson said:

We are both assuming that they haven't just edited out a long gap in the clip where nothing happened though.

The police were there, you could tell by the blue lights. It was also edited as the car seemed to jump onto the tow truck performing a ninety degree turn while doing so.

[boxbrownie]

6 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

 

The police were there, you could tell by the blue lights. It was also edited as the car seemed to jump onto the tow truck performing a ninety degree turn while doing so.

I didn’t watch it for that long  I just watched the twit drive onto the track drive to the other end and suddenly while he was attempting to smash the front of his car on the high kerb the breakdown turned up…….then I gave up and lost interest 

[Ramblin Rich]

I've long been wondering if there's any way a kerb could be put along the edge of the roadway as close to the tracks as the loading gauge allows, to deter driving onto the tracks. I suppose though that it would foul anything like slow ploughs and such...

[PhilJ W]

I think there is a low kerb but only one or two inches. I suspect the driver may have been on a pedestrian area as just before the car turned onto the tracks some pedestrians passed either side of the car.

[boxbrownie]

3 hours ago, Ramblin Rich said:

I've long been wondering if there's any way a kerb could be put along the edge of the roadway as close to the tracks as the loading gauge allows, to deter driving onto the tracks. I suppose though that it would foul anything like slow ploughs and such...

Probably better if they use something like a very harsh cattle grid type area.

[Michael Hodgson]

How about rising bollards like they use to keep cars out of bus only streets ... interlocked with the level crossing, obviously.

[SHMD]

Where the tracks are more widely spaced, leaving plenty of space between them, a picket fence should suffice.

 

Which ever solution you use, it will have to be cheap and maintenance free because you will have to be applied it to 10,000 crossings!

 

 

Kev.

(The 10,000 figure is a pure random guess.)

[SouthernRegionSteam]

Whatever you do, stupidity always finds a way...
The other trouble is that you can guarantee that some of these solutions will cause more problems than they will solve, and make extrication even more challenging.
It's sad that level crossings have practically been outlawed in many places, solely because of the lack of common sense; I think for a fair number of us it was the sight of a train passing a level crossing that ignited our passion for trains.

[Adam88]

BBC News item - collision nr Colchester

 

The lady in this article had a close call.

[Michael Hodgson]

At least she had the sense to get out of the car.

[PhilJ W]

There's a few incidences where a car waiting at a crossing has been pushed onto the tracks into the path of a train. IIRC there was one such fatal accident where the driver of the second car was jailed for causing death by dangerous driving.

[SamThomas]

In the US the problems are often caused by the layout of many crossings with hard turns immediatly after the railway lines.

 

I suspect this may be because in many parts of the US the railroad tracks came before the towns which simply got built up either side of the tracks.

 

A simple(ish) solution would be to have another set of barriers accross the tracks which work in opposite to the existing ones, but the terminally stupid could still drive through them.

[jcm@gwr]

but the terminally stupid average american driver could still drive through them.

 

I've corrected your last sentence!

[Mark Saunders]

2 minutes ago, jcm@gwr said:

but the terminally stupid average american driver could still drive through them.

 

I've corrected your last sentence!

Stupidity is not illegal but may be fatal and be recognised with a Darwin Award.

[Michael Hodgson]

18 minutes ago, SamThomas said:

 

A simple(ish) solution would be to have another set of barriers accross the tracks which work in opposite to the existing ones, but the terminally stupid could still drive through them.

We used to have those in this country, although we chose to use the same barriers for both road and rail, because you don't need both open for use at the same time.  Ours were designed in the days when all vehicles were horse drawn, and British horses were not terminally stupid, they had horse sense.

[melmerby]

11 hours ago, Michael Hodgson said:

Not just at this location.  Seems  US practice must be to fit some sort of alarm system wired to a company with tow trucks? 

Does that explain the bongs?  Mr Plod seems to get there quickly too.

 

We are both assuming that they haven't just edited out a long gap in the clip where nothing happened though.

As these seem to be regular occurrences at certain locations, I would have thought there must be some  feature of the crossings that makes it difficult for motorists to see that they are taking a wrong turning. so some better lighting or road signage might be desirable.

A ramp from tarmac level to ballast level would solve a lot of problems.

Trying to get back up a 12" ledge after driving off the road just isn't on.

 

The one at Flagstaff was a bit odd as the driver seemed to hesitate about turning to start with, then went ahead and drove on to the railway.

[melmerby]

52 minutes ago, SamThomas said:

In the US the problems are often caused by the layout of many crossings with hard turns immediatly after the railway lines.

 

I suspect this may be because in many parts of the US the railroad tracks came before the towns which simply got built up either side of the tracks.

 

 

Exactly.

IIRC The Railroad/Railway got a tract of land either side from the US Govt. as part of the deal to build the line and they were the original developers of the settlements.

In those days of course it was horse (or occasionally Oxen) power and the trains were relatively slow so there wasn't a problem having buildings down each side of the line.

 

Incidentally at Ashland VA, a regular on here, I read somewhere that there was a plan to dig a cut and cover tunnel to put the railway in but the locals objected, as they liked the railway through the middle of town.

I can't vouch for the efficacy of that report and it may not even have been a serious proposal.

[Michael Hodgson]

1 hour ago, melmerby said:

 

Incidentally at Ashland VA, a regular on here, I read somewhere that there was a plan to dig a cut and cover tunnel to put the railway in but the locals objected, as they liked the railway through the middle of town.

 

Too right.  If I had a tow truck business there I'd vote against it too.

[SamThomas]

10 hours ago, Michael Hodgson said:

We used to have those in this country, although we chose to use the same barriers for both road and rail, because you don't need both open for use at the same time.  Ours were designed in the days when all vehicles were horse drawn, and British horses were not terminally stupid, they had horse sense.

We still do in places.

[Ben B]

11 hours ago, Michael Hodgson said:

We used to have those in this country, although we chose to use the same barriers for both road and rail, because you don't need both open for use at the same time.  Ours were designed in the days when all vehicles were horse drawn, and British horses were not terminally stupid, they had horse sense.

 

A bit of a digression/thread drift (sorry!) but it reminds me of something I read years ago about the horse which pulled the former Port Carlisle Dandy (the last horse-drawn passenger train service in mainland Britain).  I can't remember the exact book, it was an old one in Carlisle Library I was looking at whilst researching the line.  Apparently the horse had spent so long pulling the Dandy along the Port Carlisle branch that when it was finally replaced with a conventional train, and the horse was sold to a firm in Carlisle, it would obsessively follow the tram lines in the city and stubbornly pull away from the roads the driver was trying to take it down, or try to pull onto the tracks at level crossings/goods yards, as it had spent its whole life up to that point plodding along between the rails of the branchline.

 

Apologies for the thread drift  

[boxbrownie]

15 hours ago, Adam88 said:

BBC News item - collision nr Colchester

 

The lady in this article had a close call.

The car doesn’t look that old, interesting that no airbags deployed……I’d expect at least side and drivers, maybe it’s a bit older than it looks…..or the airbag system sensed the train and thought “why bother?” 

 

The lady got her Christmas miracle.

[Dunsignalling]

51 minutes ago, boxbrownie said:

The car doesn’t look that old, interesting that no airbags deployed……I’d expect at least side and drivers, maybe it’s a bit older than it looks…..or the airbag system sensed the train and thought “why bother?” 

 

The lady got her Christmas miracle.

Looks like a fairly basic Fiesta so probably only had front bags as standard.

 

If the lady took the key out as she scarpered, would they have activated anyway?

 

Alternatively, by the time the photo got taken, the driver's one had been deflated ready for recovery?

Edited December 12, 2021 by Dunsignalling