Local Foamer Vids Grade Crossing Collision

[C855B]

This happened yesterday at the crossing on our street, a half-mile west of the house:

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As much bad behavior there is around here about crossing gates, collisions like this are rare. In our 14 years I can't recall a single fatal train/vehicle incident, although there have been a couple of pedestrians.

[Maletrain]

It looks like that driver must have had a clear view of the approaching train.  I hope they tested him for drugs.  I wonder if he "runs" red traffic lights because "nothing's coming anyway."

[signalmaintainer]

Well, if CN, or whichever railroad owns the track, is like my employer, they'll go after the driver for all damages, including the cost of train delays, overtime, extra crews, etc. I'd wager their legal office may already have slapped down a lawsuit against the driver.

[MK]

Luckily impact was on the passenger side first.  I'm assuming no one was on the passenger seat!

Doesn't seem to be a scratch on the loco. 

[ednadolski]

It looks like that driver must have had a clear view of the approaching train.  I hope they tested him for drugs.  I wonder if he "runs" red traffic lights because "nothing's coming anyway."

Texting & driving, I wonder...?

[sirenwerks]

I love the "this is gonna hurt you more than it hurts me" metaphor of the train leaving unscratched at 7:20. Train 1, Car 0

[C855B]

It looks like that driver must have had a clear view of the approaching train. ...

Actually, it's not all that good. Take a look when the photog zooms out - there are a lot of trees, etc., close to the tracks north (right) of that location where you don't have a sight line until you're within a few feet of the stop bar. Then there's that equipment cabinet which screens the view of approaching southbounds on the main. If CN is interested at all in incident reduction at this crossing, they'd move that cabinet (it's for RFID scanners).

From the local news coverage we've learned the driver lives in a city 30 miles away and could possibly not be familiar with the location and the wacky mix of train speeds at this crossing. I could be corrected, but I think track speed on CN at that point is 40/45, while BNSF (furthest from the camera) is 20 for BNSF trains and 10 for NS.

OTOH, it's also possible the driver may work at that big factory in the background (Duncan Hines cake mixes). I'll conjecture he might have been late for work a couple of times because of the slow and long BNSF and NS trains that block everything in town, and figured he could easily beat anything approaching the crossing. Not an unreasonable assumption, frankly, given that 80% of the trains there are slow. If he hadn't seen or noticed a through, at-speed train on CN in the relatively short periods they occupy the crossing, I can easily see how he could be surprised in such a rude manner. 

But wait, there's more! Contributing to the gate running around here is the signals are unreliable. I have personally called-in gates at this crossing and the next one north for "overtime" operation (i.e., no train in sight) five or six times in the past three years. We have all three RRs here messing with PTC installation, and the constant changes to the signal equipment means a lot of debugging. The crossing just north of here was so bad that I noticed FRA inspectors in the cabinets at least twice, which I was later told it was due to the volume of complaints about "gates down, no train".

So, yeah, the driver in this incident was an idiot, but there are multiple factors possibly contributing to the inattention.

[davefoxx]

Well, in the railroad's defense, that driver clearly drove around the gates, so . . . .  I'd also argue that, whether a driver is familiar or not with the area, he or she shouldn't be driving in excess of a reasonable speed to stop safely, especially when visibility is restricted.

Did anyone see a tractor trailer push the automobile around the gates and into the train? 

DFF

[DKS]

Good thing it wasn't an autorack train. Here's a video of a two-mile-long autorack that went into emergency, and between a quarter and a third of the autoracks had cars break free and crash into the doors on the ends.

[eja]

As quickly as that train stopped, those cars must have been empty.  Lucky for the driver stupid auto driver

[C855B]

Well, in the railroad's defense, ...

And in the driver's defense your honor    , the local problem with gates down with no trains - numerous false alarms, IOW - has fomented frustration with and disrespect for the safety devices in the community. So the RR has a small fraction of culpability here in failing to provide an accurate warning system. Driving around gates has become SOP; OTOH, folks need to understand that the "correct" response if they have determined (in their own mind) it's a false warning is to U-turn and drive the half-mile to the next crossing.

As a signal maintainer trainee a zillion years ago, I see both sides. This location happens to be a maintenance nightmare as the BNSF/NS crosses the two CN tracks just 200 feet south of the grade crossing, and the diamonds plus one turnout are in the track circuit for the gates. I see a maintainer in the cabinet nearly every day, and track crews messing with the diamonds once or twice a month. The dueling maintenance situations without doubt compound the bugs, on top of the PTC equipment changes. Glad it's not my job!

[mu26aeh]

If I heard correctly, the guy was the second car at the gate.  So he went around 1 car and gunned it, not checking if there was a train or not. 

This should also serve notice to railfans not to set up filming ******** tight to the tracks or crossings.  You might end up part of the news story

[basementcalling]

If I heard correctly, the guy was the second car at the gate.  So he went around 1 car and gunned it, not checking if there was a train or not. 

This should also serve notice to railfans not to set up filming ***** tight to the tracks or crossings.  You might end up part of the news story

That was my first thought when I skipped forward to the collision was that he went around cars stopped in front of him.

I agree there is an obstructed view, so if I were the RR I wouldn't be so fast to go to court. Yet it's clear this driver broke the law, several if he went around other stopped cars.  I knew something weird was up when the gates did not raise between trains; expected an impatient driver, but never thought I would see that type of collision from that close up. Damn lucky he was a split second faster and that the train wasn't coming from the other direction or on the second track.

[signalmaintainer]

on top of the PTC equipment changes. Glad it's not my job!

PTC has nothing to do with the grade crossing functions -- yet. But crossing activation based on the PTC backbone rather than track circuits is on the horizon.

[John]

Looks like the track on my layout