Train vs car. Train wins again. How could this happen?

[LeeH]

This happened yesterday in KY. Just don't get it. Signal working. Horn blasting... and BAM!



LiveLeak.com - 2 Killed, 2 Injured After Train Smashes Into Car in Kentucky (2 angles)

[ZAMIRZ]

Bizarre scenario. 2 different people filming what looks to be a pretty average/typical train coming through a crossing and a car happens to drive through at the perfect time to get perfectly t-boned?

[LeeH]

Originally Posted by ZAMIRZ

Bizarre scenario. 2 different people filming what looks to be a pretty average/typical train coming through a crossing and a car happens to drive through at the perfect time to get perfectly t-boned?

Yeah, I wonder if the driver was distracted by the people standing around the crossing.

[dewolf]

Why no boom gates? Pretty much every rail crossing in Australia has boom gates.

[HardDrive]

It doesn't look like the lights were working.

[HardDrive]

Originally Posted by dewolf

Why no boom gates? Pretty much every rail crossing in Australia has boom gates.

Population density is much higher here, and there has been 150 years of development with little thought towards separating cars and trains. On the coasts, its better, but in rural areas there are hundreds of thousands crossings on tiny roads. It simply not economically feasible to put gear in at every crossing.

[onewhippedpuppy]

Happens pretty frequently around here too, though people typically escape their car. I always have to wonder how cars always seem to suddenly die right on top of train tracks?

[VaSteve]

Bizarre scenario. 2 different people filming what looks to be a pretty average/typical train coming through a crossing and a car happens to drive through at the perfect time to get perfectly t-boned?

Yeah..I noticed that too. Pretty dull train for so much attention. The rail fans usually know where the interesting trains are going to be....there wasn't anything special about that one.

[zelrik911]

Originally Posted by ZAMIRZ

Bizarre scenario. 2 different people filming what looks to be a pretty average/typical train coming through a crossing and a car happens to drive through at the perfect time to get perfectly t-boned?

Unbelievably stupid car driver - maybe texting!!!!
Does anyone know why the guys were filming? It all seemed pretty friendly before the crash.
(In England they would be called 'trainspotters' which is code for a harmless, but silly, hobby.)

[widgeon13]

Very strange behavior by the driver but we'll never know what happened.

I pass an unguarded crossing near Albany NY and it creeps me out every time I go over it, usually slow down and look both ways.

[wdfifteen]

Video Shows Moment Freight Train Collided with Car in Fatal Kentucky Crash - ABC News

At least two people died and two others were injured in Kentucky when their car entered a train crossing into the path of an oncoming freight train, police said.
The crash – which was captured on video – happened at 4:07 p.m. Saturday in Louisville.
Dwight Mitchell with the Louisville Metro Police said the intersection’s flashing lights and sounds were activated to alert drivers of the approaching train. There is no gate at the intersection.
Four people were in the white Toyota Camry at the time of the crash. Two of the people inside the car were killed, while two others were taken to University Hospital in Louisville, Mitchell said. No one on the train was injured.
The freight train did not derail, but it was unable to slow down and pushed the car about a half mile down the tracks, Mitchell said.

[GH85Carrera]

Just a wild ass guess....

That driver is one of the people that only stop for trains when the train is there in the intersection blocking the road. We have gate arms at almost every intersection in the area I live in. I was coming to a stop since the lights went off and the arms came down and a idiot behind me drove across the yellow line to drive around the gate arms. The train rolled by and that idiot driver was pulled over and a cop was giving him a nice ticket. He was just not willing to waste the time waiting on a train.

The other possibility is the familiarity of an intersection. A friend of mine worked in the safety department at a Rail Road company. He was the guy that went to classrooms of grade 1 to 12 and city council meetings and gave the same safety speech over and over. He replaced a guy that did the same job for years. That guy my friend replaced was killed by a train at an intersection that was just a mile from his house and that he crossed every day.

[911SauCy]

Humans, most are incredibly dumb.

[widebody911]

They'll probably try to sue Toyota, like the idiot that drove her Mercedes SUV onto the tracks and got hit.

[herr_oberst]

If I'm that engineer, my first thoughts are that this is some sort of jackass stunt gone wrong....

(Is that someones home twenty feet from those tracks?)

[GH85Carrera]

Originally Posted by herr_oberst

(Is that someones home twenty feet from those tracks?)

It looks like it.

There are many places that have houses right next to the tracks. The land is cheap and since most people don't want to live there the houses are cheap as well.

When I was an infant my parents lived in a house that was right next to the tracks in Louisiana. My dad said the house would actually shake. He said a glass of water would get major ripples from the motion. He said after a few months everyone learned to sleep right through the noise. They were happy to move however.

[Oh Haha]

Yep, we have tracks that run right through our town. Our house is about 1/8 mile from them. There is a crossing to the south of us so the engineer has to sound the horn which can be very loud at times, depending on the wind direction.

You get used to the rumbling although there are houses right next to the tracks and I don't know how those folks could stand it.

The city installed crossing gates last summer which has helped with drivers going around. In my years of driving I have never went around gates. I have crossed tracks with flashing lights after seeing that the train was not even close. Wrong I know but there it is.

[dennis in se pa]

There are plenty of ungated crossings where I live. Reading, PA home of Reading Railroad. I always look both ways before I cross any tracks.

[herr_oberst]

Rumblings I might be able to get used to. The horn is a whole 'nother thing. Those suckers are LOUD, and some engineers like to really stretch out the longs on the 14L....

(And god help you if the train has a wheel or two with a bad bearing. Chalk board? Meet my fingernails!)

[Oh Haha]

Originally Posted by herr_oberst

Rumblings I might be able to get used to. The horn is a whole 'nother thing. Those suckers are LOUD, and some engineers like to really stretch out the longs on the 14L....

(And god help you if the train has a wheel or two with a bad bearing. Chalk board? Meet my fingernails!)

Yeah, the horn blasting can be obnoxious. I swear one of the engineers gets off on being extra noisy. Others will do what's needed but no more. We have 2 major street crossings so we get the horn multiple times as the train passes through. They are usually going very slow as the rail yard is only about 5 miles south of the city.

What sucks is when they block both intersections as they wait for train cars to be hooked/unloaded or whatever they do in the yard. There is a bypass road as emergency vehicles would be completely blocked from north and south travel if not for that.