RAILROAD CROSSING SAFETY - Sheriff Officer Hit - could have been any of us.

[Another Ahab]

I have days off my life from the heart stopping incidents when someone pulls out in front of me, runs the gates, or is trespassing... All I can do is set the brakes, make noise and hold on. And sometimes there isn't time to do any of it...

The industry average is you will kill someone every 2 years of your career...

Hey, Ferroequinologist, I meant to circle back and apologize to you.

I was stupid as a kid (not saying I got over that either), and the things I did might have turned wrong, and for more people than just me.

Now, finally, I get it.

That statistic of yours (every two years), shouldn't happen to anyone. I never meant to make small of it. Just telling stories from when I was a kid.

I wish a blessing on you of peace always, and hope you beat the statistic. There's my wish!

 

[marchplumber]

Hey, Ferroequinologist, I meant to circle back and apologize to you.

I was stupid as a kid (not saying I got over that either), and the things I did might have turned wrong, and for more people than just me.

Now, finally, I get it.

That statistic of yours (every two years), shouldn't happen to anyone. I never meant to make small of it. Just telling stories from when I was a kid.

I wish a blessing on you of peace always, and hope you beat the statistic. There's my wish!

DITTO!

Pray you NEVER have to witness /go through this type of thing, Ferro!!

 

[USAFSS-ColdWarrior]

Ferro,
You serve this nation in a thankless job. Those horrible things to which you are at risk are beyond the comprehension of John Q Public.
Please know that you are in our prayers as well as your fellow train drivers and crews.... AND you have our appreciation and SALUTE. Your contributions are recognized and honors bestowed, Sir.

 

[Ferroequinologist]

Hey Ahab,
Don't worry about it. We all have done stupid stuff as kids and teens, we are blessed to have lived through!

I'm not a 'mainline' engineer, so I don't put in nearly the hours on the road as most train crews. I have had about 50 really close calls and only one vehicle hit in my career thus far. I have been lucky and hope to remain so.

The best thing you or anyone can do is harp on safety at crossings and try and prevent trespassing. A friend hit a teen 3 days ago, she was crossing the tracks with earbuds in and he said she never looked up or both ways, even with him blaring the horn. Such a sad loss because of a single moment of carelessness.

And thank you USAFSS, for your kind words. PTSD is a little recognized issue within the railroader community, but fairly rampant. I still have occasional nightmares about some of the close calls. Others have it much worse.

 

[John S-B]

I have days off my life from the heart stopping incidents when someone pulls out in front of me, runs the gates, or is trespassing... All I can do is set the brakes, make noise and hold on. And sometimes there isn't time to do any of it...

The industry average is you will kill someone every 2 years of your career...

Ferro isn't lying, I'm the guy that scrapes them up. I think we had one 3 mile section of heavy main line with two NS tracks and one CSX track that averaged one person hit a year in ten years, cars and pedestrians.

 

[Another Ahab]

Ferro isn't lying, I'm the guy that scrapes them up. I think we had one 3 mile section of heavy main line with two NS tracks and one CSX track that averaged one person hit a year in ten years, cars and pedestrians.

25 years of firefighting, and my brother recently retired as a captain of a company down in North Carolina.

It was an episode that he said broke him, and told me he had to get out:

- Responded to a highway crash, a mother and her two young children. No survivors. It was the last in a career of similar incidents for him, but this one pushed him over the edge.

My heart goes out to everybody involved in these kinds of events, like you John S-B, victims and responders. The violence does good for no one.

 

[WILDBOY6X6]

I hate to say it but this is an example of the old saying, you can't fix stupid, he should have stopped and looked then continued. The same thing all emergency vehicles are required to do at red lights. As a Railroad guy here, let's think about what the crew of the trains have to deal with too.

 

[rockertype]

For people that don't quite understand the danger that exists at a RR crossing, I tell them that hitting a vehicle with a locomotive is like stepping on an empty beer can with your work boot. You wouldn't want to be in the can!

BIG steel crushes little steel every time.

 

[Larry Weibert]

BIG steel crushes little steel every time.

View attachment 849335

You Got That Right. Trains are insured by a little known thing called Mass Ratio

 

[Mullaney]

.
Well, it looks like I started reading and missed that this was an old thread that was started about three years ago...

Sad to say that Stop, Look, Listen and Live that Southern Railway was pushing at grade crossings on the 70's didn't solve the problem. I guess they helped some though. Maybe a few lives more were saved than had they done nothing.

The senior engineer here in Charlotte has told me stories that you just couldn't imagine happening. People who step out in front of a moving train. Nit Wits who will try to beat the train at the crossing. He has mentioned in a joking way that he sets the brake, then turns the steering wheel hard left or right. Sad part is that the train doesn't really move left or right...

Back at 16 years old, driving a school bus I remember the safety course put on my the NCDMV. The thing that stuck in my mind was that a school bus going 35 - impacting into a stopped object - (a tree or another vehicle) is equivalent of a 100 mile an hour crash in a personal vehicle.

 

[marchplumber]

I feel for the engineers......they just have to watch..........the people who "do" the action at the crossing??? I guess it's a final lesson. How big of a "hurry" are they really in?? It not only happens to trains.......cars, trucks, boats/ships.....people and their priorities get themselves in life and death situations......

 

[Ferroequinologist]

I've come to terms with it, as they put themselves in my way. There are way toi many lifeguards around the gene pool anyway. I do all I can but it is in God's hands once they foul the track. Anymore, it just makes me angry at whoever it is doing the dumb move. Now if I ever hit a car with innocents inside, I'd be devastated.

 

[Back2Wyo]

If you watch some of the Railroad webcams, you will see people doing stupid stuff all the time. 2 days in a row, there were incidents in Flagstaff of pedestrians walking in front of trains. Several weeks ago, a guy walked in front of a train and was killed on camera. People are just dumb around big moving objects.

 

[Mullaney]

If you watch some of the Railroad webcams, you will see people doing stupid stuff all the time. 2 days in a row, there were incidents in Flagstaff of pedestrians walking in front of trains. Several weeks ago, a guy walked in front of a train and was killed on camera. People are just dumb around big moving objects.

.
Yes sir! I am guessing it is that way on most trains, but there are cameras out in the front of the locomotive. They record what is happening, speed and settings in the train - kinda like a "black box" in an airplane.

Sadly, it has to be CYA for the railroad. That way when the cross arms come down and the idiot rolls on through they have pictures and proof of the speed of the train.

 

[G744]

My dad worked for Sufferin' Pacific from 1939 till 1980.

He saw plenty. In the days of passenger service, once in a while a passenger would fall off the consist whilst under way, making him wonder why.

More than one engineer/fireman/brakeman quit after their first crossing fatal.

"The train always wins" was the saying.

He thought the crew could lose, too. Especially in a derailment.

Dennis

 

[DeadParrot]

The Heartland Flyer which runs from OKC to Fort Worth hit a car hauler stuck on the tracks in October. Someone managed to capture the collision on video.

No one was killed but some of the passengers were injured.

 

[G744]

And they are liable for damages to the train now, plus the total loss of their hauler and cargo.

Stupid. Just plain stupid.

Conelrad

 

[Another Ahab]

The Heartland Flyer which runs from OKC to Fort Worth hit a car hauler stuck on the tracks in October.
No one was killed but some of the passengers were injured.

In a right kind of world, the country would be broken up into a grid:

- of rails (for long-haul travel), with

- a smaller grid of roadway inside each square of rail, for (short-haul) distribution and travel

That approach could keep these two (incompatible) systems separated. But don't hold your breath, because we're just not thinking that way anywhere right now.

Yikes!

 

[rockertype]

In a right kind of world, the country would be broken up into a grid:

- of rails (for long-haul travel), with

- a smaller grid of roadway inside each square of rail, for (short-haul) distribution and travel

That approach could keep these two (incompatible) systems separated. But don't hold your breath, because we're just not thinking that way anywhere right now.

??? Don't you mean an IMAGINARY world? In your world, you wouldn't need a "road" at all. Just take the train! Hopefully the train passes close to your house so you can get home.

 

[Another Ahab]

??? Don't you mean an IMAGINARY world? In your world, you wouldn't need a "road" at all. Just take the train! Hopefully the train passes close to your house so you can get home.

The world IS imagined, otherwise we'd still all be living in trees.

Imagine that