Well, my hometown finally made the railroad news, again. The Empire Builder hit a tractor-trailer filled with fertilizer that was straddling the mainline. Why the truck ignored the warning lights is unknown. Film at 11. http://keprtv.com/news/local/no-one-injured-in-amtrak-collision
Keeping in mind that I haven’t seen news video, and that news text can be erroneous, I’m looking at this and wondering, were there lights?
“occurred when the truck attempted to pass through an uncontrolled railroad crossing” http://kpq.com/5531-2/
Are 2 apparent crossings there. upper one seems to have some kind of poles adjacent to crossing, lower one down by Appleyard Dr does not seem to.
Oh my!
Commercial motor vehicles are required to stop before a grade crossing and look both ways for oncoming train traffic. If they can proceed safely, they are to do so, without shifting gears, nor stopping until the entire vehicle is clear of the grade crossing.
So if the driver is fast enough with shifting, he may be going across the crossing in third gear, approximately 15 MPH max. I usually was in second gear, 10 MPH max, on those kinds of crossings.
This is all your fault Steve!
" Rooster " said:
This is all your fault Steve!
Read your contract, Roo.
" Rooster " said:
This is all your fault Steve!
Read your contract, Roo.
Let’s see now…, fertilizer and diesel make ANFO…
I guess you could say they dodged more than a bullet.
Todd, it makes Anfo when mixed in the proper ratio. But yea, that could have been a lot worse. But I still wouldn’t want to be the one to clean up that shi …mess.
David, The Stop and cross is only for CMV carrying hazardous material, like gas or things if that nature, regular trucks , like mine are not required to do anything more than cars, look and do not be stupid and stop on tracks.
Back in 1998 I bought my first truck and had just picked it up and 1 mile from the dealer there are RR track, and a 6 lane major road parrallel, but at a 30degree angle to the road I was on, well as I was approaching the light changed, and since my truck was new, I didnt want to blow through a 6 lane intersection so I stopped with my nose on the tracks, the lococmotive moving at 5mph came up close and just laid on the horn until I could back up enough. Next time I will run the light.
Pete its been over 20 years since I drove a CMV. But I remember hating the grade crossings that didn’t have active warning systems, because I had to stop and look before proceeding. Now if the crossing had an active warning system, I just rolled along like any vehicle.
Dave a funny story, I used to load eggs at a plant that had a RR track between the plant and the road, a busy road. the 2 years before this I had never encountered a train. one evening around 9pm or so I dropped off some empty baskets and pallets. closed doors and the way the plant was situated you crossed the tracks at an angle where with a cabover you could not see to the right side, down the tracks, well I had my wife with me at the time and as I pulled across and I jokingly said “Look for a train coming”. She leaned over and as I glanced that way looking at only the road she started waving her hand and kinda made a wierd noise before finally yelling TRAIN!!! No cars were coming and I just whipped out onto the road, it was not real close maybe 100yards away and moving at maybe 15 to 20mph. but it sure scared the hell out of both of us. Found out the track is serviced every other night, so since I usually came daytime that is why I never saw anything before.
Look both ways BEFORE crossing the tracks. (http://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-surprised.gif)(http://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-cool.gif)(http://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-laughing.gif)
Proceed slowly when train is approaching.
Steve complacency kills. In my excuse it wasnt close enough to be blowing horn
Funny Story #2. Downtown Phoenix, BNSF parrallels 19th ave , eastbound on Van Buren you have commercial buildings, 2 sets of RR tracks then 19th ave, so there is not a lot of visibility when east on Van Buren, as I approached intersection the signal was red and RR warning lights were flashing and ther was a car stopped on the tracks . I could not see the locomotive, but could clearly hear the horn, oh boy this is going to be ugly, guy in car sat there looking straight ahead, not moving, and practicly no traffic to keep him from moving either ahead or to make a right turn and get away. The engineer was just laying in the horn after doing his required set. finally the locomotive came slowly coasting to a stop about a foot from the car, horn/whistle just blasting away. Conductor comes down the steps, takes one step and raps on passenger window, then and only then did the guy nail the gas and shoot across the intersection, conductor looks at me shakes his head as I laugh , then on with the day.
Pete, maybe the driver was paralyzed with fear.