I'm sick at heart, and it's stupid, but I Understand... ???

[Old Ironsights]

Everything has to reroute around a parade... Right?

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012 ... -condition

So... "I''m driving a Float with my fellow Veterans onboard...

A Train Crossing without a cross-bar is no different than other PD-blocked streets... Right?....

Dammit, Dammit, Dammit........



(OK, it wasn't me, and I spend waaaay too much time around Trains, but... )

TRAINS DON'T FOLLOW "NORMAL" RULES....

They are Constitutional Individualists... they DON'T CARE what some local .Gov decides. Their Property (the rail line) is THEIRS. The mis/uninformed people around them (a 50+mph 1 MILLION ton vehicle crossing the well marked Rail line that CANNOT STOP in WELL OVER A MILE) who DON'T GET/EVEN RESEARCH THE DANGER are not even a real concern... IF YOU JUMP INTO A PIT OF FIRE PREPARE TO GET BURNED.

Sorry if that seems to be harsh, but IT'S REALITY. and if you want Rail to work, there is no way around it.

2 steel rails = DEATH to anyone who challenges them. Period.

This isn't a SPECIFIC knock on the Vet driving the float, but a GENERAL warning to ALL who who would think that crossing a Steel River is "safe" simply because the "mayor" says so....

[Blaine]

[J Miller]

OI,

I know, understand and respect trains. You will get no argument from me.

What I want to know is; did the crossing have drop gates and if so why didn't they stop the flat beds? If not how far was the train visible to the driver of the flatbeds?
You know the engineer was laying on those horns so unless the driver(s) was deaf he had to hear it. Why didn't he stop? If he was already in the process of crossing as the train approached and then heard the train's horns, why didn't he speed up?

Lots of questions, no answers.

I'm glad I wasn't there. I wouldn't want to see the carnage. Somebody made a grave and fatal error and it wasn't the trains engineer.

As always JMNSHO

Joe

[Ben_Rumson]

The way it was reported around here, the red lights were flashing & bell ringing... the first flatbed pulled across...followed by a few other vehicles followed by the second flatbed....then traffic stopped ...the second flatbed was sounding his horn trying to get traffic to pull up so he could get off the tracks when the swing arm came down on about the last third of the flatbed ...The flatbed driver voluntarily took a blood test...

[AJMD429]

Teaching kids about guns and power tools and so on involves this very thing...

There are many things that can hurt you, and will give you warning, and the hurt is gradual, and usually survivable. An electric drill. A hot stove. Sliding your car on ice into someone's mailbox. A hammer.

There are other things that don't give warning - you just notice all of a sudden a body part is gone (table saw), crushed beyond repair (wood splitter), or you're dead (electricity, guns, trains, automobiles vs. things bigger than mailboxes).

The difference is more than one of degree.

[horsesoldier03]

I always hate reading articles such as this, 1) because of the tragedy, but 2) because it has so many unanswered questions to an incident you have no clue how it was not avoided.

Every train blows its whistle before an intersection, how did they NOT know it was about to hit them?

If I am on a float or trailer in a parade and I see the idiot driver has placed me in danger on a railroad track and a train is coming, I JUMP!!!

[MrMurphy]

Some of the vets were disabled and couldn't jump.

One of them got clear, came back and got his wife clear and was returning for others when they got hit.

Some parade floats don't exactly start and stop on a dime.

Also, quite a few places trains do NOT whistle and there are sometimes no gates.

Quite common around here even around towns if it's a smaller siding track or a less-used one.

[Sixgun]

My son, a UP engineer tells me its common practice for people to "attempt" to "beat the train". Most win----some lose.

Engineers will lose their jobs if they don't blow the whistle at every crossing.

Freight trains are a whole different smoke than commuter trains. I don't know the exact distance but I do believe its at least 4 times the distance for a freight train to stop vs. commuter train.

I load 48' to 53' trailers for a living. These trailers are loaded with about 44,000 lbs of freight. Total weight is pushing 80,000 lbs. Truck drivers tell me daily its nothing for cars to pull out in front of them in an attempt to "get ahead of the big truck", not knowing or knowing those boys can't stop on a dime. Griff can back me up on this.

Clinton did a great job at "dumbing down of Americans".

Me

[piller]

Unanswered questions, but everyone should learn from this that you never, never, never stop on the tracks. You either cross before, after, or lose to the train.

[El Chivo]

sometimes people get boxed in from other cars, can't move forward or back.

[Old Ironsights]

sometimes people get boxed in from other cars, can't move forward or back.

If I'm driving anything other than a Yugo, I will MAKE a hole... In the end, there will be less damage & death.

That said, Trains are nothing to play with, no matter what the "approved" parade route is...

[junkbug]

I still remember this accident, and usually think about it when approaching RR tracks.

http://www3.gendisasters.com/virginia/1 ... -sept-1989

I just don't cross tracks unless there is enough room on the other side to get my vehicle completely out of the Right of Way. Incredibly, I sometimes get honked at for this caution.

[20cows]

Think slow moving parade.

This is according to the TxDOT report quoted in the local paper (Abilene is 150 miles from Midland).

The lights started flashing 20 seconds before the train hit the crossing. The arms came down 13 seconds ahead of the train. The train sounded its horn 9 seconds before. These are pretty much standard times.

With all the noise of the parade, the sound warnings were not heard.

The truck driver should have (shoulda coulda woulda) treated this like any other truck crossing railroad tracks and followed standard protocal. Parade be darned for the crossing.

My nephew who lives in Midland probably wouldn't have been on the float (wasn't wounded while over there), but he would have been in the middle of the aftermath (something he didn't need to go through) if he hadn't been in Lubbock assisting the arrival of his new daughter (thank You Lord).