Dumbazz of the day award

[URY914]

Driving back from Home Depot and the RR crossing lights come on and the gates start coming down. We're the first car in line at the gate. This is an Amtrak crossing, to the right you can see about 1/4 mile, to the left is an overpass and the tracks curve so you can only see about 200 yards.

We sit there maybe 3-4 minutes and no train. I move up look both ways, no train. On the other side of the road a guy gets out of a van and walks up to the gate, looks both ways then lifts up the gate and starts telling people to drive across the tracks. Cars start driving thru. I roll my window down and yell at the guy. "What are you doing?" He says "There's no train." I respond with "You're a dumbazz. You could get someone killed". He doesn't respond. My wife calls 9-1-1. Everyone behind me starts backing up and doing u-turns. We do the same.

I took a short video and a few photos. I'll watch the local news later to see if he was right or not.

[Baz]

Poor form to touch the gate - let alone lift it up.

I have on occasion driven around the gate - but would never touch it.

I ran into an idiot tonight myself. Won't clog up your thread with the details but it was a head shaker. There's no shortage of them...that's for sure!

[aap1966]

Commonest elements in the universe: hydrogen and stupidity.

[ckelly78z]

That dude should be cited for endangering others. Never, and I mean NEVER touch the gate, it's a no no to drive around, but not as serious as touching/moving it.

[Jeff Higgins]

Really - you can lift a modern railroad crossing gate? Why?

[Heel n Toe]

Originally Posted by Jeff Higgins

Really - you can lift a modern railroad crossing gate? Why?

Probably so an emergency vehicle can get through in those rare instances that the gate malfunctions and doesn't go up after the train passes... or if it's down even though a train is several hundred yards away... stopped.

One of our resident railroaders can probably give the real reason if I'm off the mark... someone please summon them. Jolly A. is one of them.

[Joe Bob]

Another Dumass in Florida. Florida dad accidentally shoots and kills son at gun range - AOL

[sammyg2]

Originally Posted by Joe Bob

Another Dumass in Florida. Florida dad accidentally shoots and kills son at gun range - AOL

Officials say the 64-year-old dad was shooting and one shell casing ricocheted off the nearby wall and fell into the back of his shirt. In an attempt to remove the hot casing, Brumby reached behind his back with the hand that was holding the gun and accidentally fired another bullet.

Now all the sudden I'm the overly-sensitive one?

[Joe Bob]

You're definitely "special" didn't Momz have you tested?

[sammyg2]

[Joe Bob]

Izzat before you became "plus size"?

[Por_sha911]

* (Warning some language NSFW) *

a biker wearing a helmet camera is seen riding in the left lane, when out of nowhere a woman to his right cuts him off. (Warning explicit language used in video below)After the cyclist fired off a few choice words, he proceeded to get the ultimate revenge.
He flagged a police officer down and reported the incident.
"She tried to run me out of my lane at the merge," he said to the cop in the video.
The woman ended up getting two tickets, one for passing on the right and unsafe lane change, according to Mashable.

[Jolly Amaranto]

The logic behind the crossing gates is kind of "Fail Safe" in that if there is a malfunction, the gates go down and close the crossing until the railroad signal maintainers can check it out and repair it. If gate and warning lights were not working and stayed open, a train would not trigger them and crossing collisions would be a big risk. They would be held liable for anything. If the gate is down and appears to be malfunctioning, the crossing is closed so turn around and go somewhere else. There is a phone number on each crossing control box or on the mast holding the gate or lights. There is also a unique number assigned to that location. If you call the phone number and give that location number, the railroad will be right on it if they were not already aware there was a problem. This number is also important if a vehicle is stalled or a trailer is high centered on the tracks. The dispatcher will alert any train approaching that location and hopefully get them stopped before they collide with anything.

[Jolly Amaranto]

I should add that the "normal" at rest position of a crossing gate is down, so if there is a failure, gravity will bring it down. The counterweights are set so the lift motor does not have to work so hard. This also allows someone to lift the gate easily.

[Jolly Amaranto]

[sammyg2]

Originally Posted by Joe Bob

Izzat before you became "plus size"?

That is a picture of the son who was accidentally shot and killed by his father due to a spontaneous reaction after feeling hot metal burning his back.
It wasn't the result of a dumb decision, it wasn't directly due to poor judgement.
He got burned, he flinched, his gun discharged.
Could it have been prevented? In hind sight, of course.
But no one could have seen it coming.

It's not hard to imagine some of what that father is feeling right about now.

[Joe Bob]

Yes, I know that was the kid that got killed. I read that the father used his gun hand with the gun still in it to try to dislodge the ejected shell form the collar of his shirt. In retrospect, a ten dollar word for Monday morning QB, it was bad situational awareness.

[sc_rufctr]

:/

Originally Posted by Joe Bob

Kyle Calloway, a former professional football offensive tackle for the Buffalo Bills, died July 2, 2016, after he was struck by a train while jogging near the railroad tracks in Vail, Arizona. He was 29.

Calloway, who was born into a military family June 21, 1987, in Belleville, Illinois, attended three different high schools in four years, according to his University of Iowa Hawkeyes biography. By the time he reached his senior year, the talented athlete was named first team all-city as well as all-conference.

After deciding to play football at the University of Iowa, he was redshirted in 2005. He played sparsely in 2006, but in 2007, he earned a first-team spot at right tackle. He became such a standout player that by 2009, his last year at Iowa, he started 11 games at right tackle and was named second team all-Big Ten by the media covering college football. In all, he started 37 games between 2006 and 2009.