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02/18/2005 12:42:14 PM · #1 |
Has Anybody Seen This?
Train Hits Truck << Video
Message edited by author 2005-02-18 12:50:51.
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02/18/2005 12:46:17 PM · #2 |
| I bet the guy parked behind him need some new shorts. |
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02/18/2005 12:46:49 PM · #3 |
I've seen it, but I didn't get the story...did the truck stall?
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02/18/2005 12:48:41 PM · #4 |
You know what is funny about that story? The guy who filmed it was there to film a train crossing for lawsuit evidence, and he caught that!
Here is the CNN Story:
Train Hits Truck In California
The back end was still on the tracks while she was at a light.
Message edited by author 2005-02-18 12:51:58.
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02/18/2005 12:50:47 PM · #5 |
Originally posted by thatcloudthere:
I've seen it, but I didn't get the story...did the truck stall? |
The answer to my question:
The tractor-trailer, carrying a load of strawberries, was waiting for a green light at the intersection, and its back end was still on the tracks, Keith said. The truck driver was cited for failing to clear the tracks; she said she didn't see the train coming.
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02/18/2005 12:51:15 PM · #6 |
Originally posted by vince31874:
The back end was still on the tracks while he was at a light. |
Wow...good thing it wasn't a school bus or something...
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02/18/2005 12:58:28 PM · #7 |
| Well, I guess that's one way of making strawberry smoothies... |
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02/18/2005 12:59:34 PM · #8 |
Too bad it was not a grape truck. We could have had wine.
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02/18/2005 01:14:44 PM · #9 |
| If I was the person behind the semi or even 5 cars back I am pretty sure I would have saw what was coming and I would have been out of my car and running the opposite direction. I think the truck behind the trailer is lucky they didnt have something come through there windshield among other things. It is possible they didnt have enough time to react but I would find it hard to just sit there. |
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02/18/2005 05:28:18 PM · #10 |
Originally posted by riotspyne:
If I was the person behind the semi or even 5 cars back I am pretty sure I would have saw what was coming and I would have been out of my car and running the opposite direction. I think the truck behind the trailer is lucky they didnt have something come through there windshield among other things. It is possible they didnt have enough time to react but I would find it hard to just sit there. |
Yeah, I't looked from the video like many other vantage points could have seen the truck on the tracks. Perhaps it was a deer in headlights situation or they felt safer inside their cars but everyone got lucky it wasn't a truck transporting liquid propane or gasoline or some other nasty substance.
In the second half of the video you see a silver car in the lanes parallel to the tracks. When the light turns green he pulls forward. Now he was probably going to turn right but it's really obvious that he isn't going to be able to, so it looks like he is just pulling forward to get a better look.
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02/18/2005 06:04:29 PM · #11 |
Originally posted by thatcloudthere:
Originally posted by vince31874:
The back end was still on the tracks while he was at a light. |
Wow...good thing it wasn't a school bus or something... |
It's also a good thing the trailer was mostly empty -- that wasn't a freight train, it was an Amtrak passenger train. A full trailer might have derailed it.
What I find surprising is that the situation was possible in the first place. Most railroad grade crossings near traffic lights are engineered so that at least briefly, when the railroad signal activates, the traffic on the crossing side has a green light for at least long enough for any traffic on the tracks to clear. That the trucker had a red light is disturbing, and might have been the grounds for the lawsuit that led to the taping in the first place.
-Terry
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02/18/2005 06:06:16 PM · #12 |
| There was actually no one in the truck at the time it was hit - or so it said on the news. She must've bailed. |
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02/18/2005 06:30:25 PM · #13 |
The wierd thing about this (besides the fact that the photographer(s) actually caught the accident on film) is that it was filmed from both sides of the tracks. I have seen footage of the trailer from the rear being hit as well as from the front, showing the cab staying intact.
That sort of thing makes me a bit suspicious, for some reason. The photographer(s) had an axe to grind. Could it possibly have been staged? It seems highly unlikely, but then the whole situation does.
Edit: Oh, I see the posted clip shows this...funny that no one has commented on that.
Message edited by author 2005-02-18 18:33:23.
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02/18/2005 06:38:50 PM · #14 |
I'm confused. Is this a traffic light right next to a railroad crossing? Are the two so close together that a red stop light leaves a truck still on the tracks?
How did this road layout ever get approved?
And thank goodness nobody was hurt.
John
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02/18/2005 06:42:13 PM · #15 |
Originally posted by floyd:
I'm confused. Is this a traffic light right next to a railroad crossing? Are the two so close together that a red stop light leaves a truck still on the tracks?
How did this road layout ever get approved?
And thank goodness nobody was hurt.
John |
That kind of layout is actually very common... though as I mentioned above, normally track-side traffic gets a green light when the signals activate to allow any stranded vehicles to clear the tracks.
-Terry
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02/18/2005 06:42:18 PM · #16 |
I love how the dude in the s10 in the end just keeps driving. I would have stopped!
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02/18/2005 06:45:01 PM · #17 |
The Cab was past the guard rail, and the rest of the truck was still on the tracks. The actual overhead traffic light is beyond the tracks.
The things is, the traffic light is independent of what the guard rail does. In other words this is what happn: (I have seen this happen alot)
The truck probably tried to beat the train. As the bells went off, she moved into the intersection before the guard dropped. However, the traffic light beyond the tracks happen to turn red. So.. She stopped, and not paying attention to the fact that half of the back part of the trailer was still on the tracks.
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02/18/2005 06:46:04 PM · #18 |
Originally posted by ClubJuggle:
Originally posted by floyd:
I'm confused. Is this a traffic light right next to a railroad crossing? Are the two so close together that a red stop light leaves a truck still on the tracks?
How did this road layout ever get approved?
And thank goodness nobody was hurt.
John |
That kind of layout is actually very common... though as I mentioned above, normally track-side traffic gets a green light when the signals activate to allow any stranded vehicles to clear the tracks.
-Terry |
Depends on the actual layout. I have seen lights "STAY" red and watch cars almost get creamed. Watch the video and you will notice the traffic light is RED.
Message edited by author 2005-02-18 18:47:59.
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02/18/2005 06:49:04 PM · #19 |
Originally posted by vince31874:
Originally posted by ClubJuggle:
Originally posted by floyd:
I'm confused. Is this a traffic light right next to a railroad crossing? Are the two so close together that a red stop light leaves a truck still on the tracks?
How did this road layout ever get approved?
And thank goodness nobody was hurt.
John |
That kind of layout is actually very common... though as I mentioned above, normally track-side traffic gets a green light when the signals activate to allow any stranded vehicles to clear the tracks.
-Terry |
Depends on the actual layout. I have seen lights "STAY" red and watch cars almost get creamed. Watch the video and you will notice the traffic light is RED. |
I did notice that and commented that it was disturbing... see my previous post.
-Terry
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02/18/2005 06:50:06 PM · #20 |
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02/18/2005 08:24:38 PM · #21 |
Originally posted by thatcloudthere:
Originally posted by vince31874:
The back end was still on the tracks while he was at a light. |
Wow...good thing it wasn't a school bus or something... |
A very similar accident actually happened 10 years ago in Fox River Grove, Il., about 35 miles northwest of Chicago when a school bus was hit by a Metra Union Pacific commuter train. I don't think anybody was killed, but several kids on the bus were injured. Luckily the train was only going about 10 MPH as it was approaching the Fox River Grove station. The railroad tracks at that point parallel US highway 14, and on any cross-street crossing the tracks and the highway there is room for one or maybe 2 SMALL cars between the tracks and the highway when the traffic light is red. Apparently the bus driver misjudged the timing of the traffic light, drove the school bus onto the tracks before there was sufficient room between the tracks and the intersection with highway 14 for her bus to clear the tracks (both illegal under Illinois state law and also very dangerous and just plain STUPID). The light turned red, the cars in front of her bus stopped, she couldn't clear the tracks, and she couldn't back up to get off the tracks as there were cars stopped right behind her also. The train was already very close so she just got off the bus herself and left the kids to fend for themselves. Some of the kids got off via the emergency door, but some panicked and there just wasn't time for all of them to get off.
What really pissed me off about this incident was the way the news media had a field day dragging the Union Pacific Railraod, the Illinois highway department, and the village of Fox River Grove through the mud over this accident while pretty much ignoring the stupid, irresponsible, and reprehensible actions of the school bus driver. As far as I know she got off with a slap on the wrist (a ticket for stopping a vehicle within a railroad crossing) and she was fired, as she should have been. In my book she should have been charged with at least criminal negligence and child endangerment. |
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02/19/2005 05:05:45 AM · #22 |
There's one thing that road designers can RELY on - people are dumb. There's always going to be someone who thinks they can nip across the lights or railroad junction.
In my view this is a very dangerous way to build railroad crossings.
John
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