Train Versus SUV = Tragedy

[n2ize]

This happened early this morning several miles up the line from where I live. It is rumored that the woman who was driving the SUV tried to beat it through the crossing as the gate was coming down causing the SUV to get stuck. Of course we'll have to wait till investigators compile what actually happened. This isn't the first hit to happen at this crossing but it's the most tragic and devastating one that I can remember.

http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/Metro-North-Train-Hits-Car-Valhalla-New-York-Harlem-Line-290716911.html

http://www.lohud.com/story/news/local/westchester/2015/02/03/train-car-collide-valhalla-mass-casualties/22822737/

[W2NAP]

playing chicken with a train is like playing Russian roulette with a 6 shooter with all 6 rounds loaded

[NQ6U]

Train driver's fault. He didn't even try to swerve around the SUV on the tracks.

[n2ize]

Train driver's fault. He didn't even try to swerve around the SUV on the tracks.

I was thinking the same thing. All he had to do was grab the steering wheel of the train and make a sharp swerve to avoid the car.

All joking aside, they still haven't determined for certtain whether the driver of the SUV actually did try to beat it across. But thus far witnesses and the chain of events seem to indicate that she did. Plus it wouldn;t surprise me, I see some drivers do some pretty crazy and stupid things around here. Furthermore that is a busy area and the crossing is well lighted and marked with all the bells, whistles warnings and safety gates. Hundreds of peoople pass through it daily with no incidents. It is also quite stupid to try and beat that crossing. This is not some rural area where if you miss the crossing you have to wait a half hour for a huge slow moving freight train with hundreds of cars to pass. These are high speed commuter trains with about 10 - 12 cars per train.
At most you are not going to have to wait much longer than a minute.

[N2CHX]

I was thinking the same thing. All he had to do was grab the steering wheel of the train and make a sharp swerve to avoid the car.

All joking aside, they still haven't determined for certtain whether the driver of the SUV actually did try to beat it across. But thus far witnesses and the chain of events seem to indicate that she did. Plus it wouldn;t surprise me, I see some drivers do some pretty crazy and stupid things around here. Furthermore that is a busy area and the crossing is well lighted and marked with all the bells, whistles warnings and safety gates. Hundreds of peoople pass through it daily with no incidents. It is also quite stupid to try and beat that crossing. This is not some rural area where if you miss the crossing you have to wait a half hour for a huge slow moving freight train with hundreds of cars to pass. These are high speed commuter trains with about 10 - 12 cars per train.
At most you are not going to have to wait much longer than a minute.

Stupid people strike again. What was he afraid of? Breaking the signal arm? Anyone with half a brain would have gunned it and gotten out of the way, minor damage to SUV and destruction of signal arm be damned.

[kd6nig]

I'm sure that train engineer won't be forgetting for a while.

All he/she can do is throw it in Emergency and hold on.

[N2CHX]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJNR2EpS0jw

Gotta watch all the way to the end, if you haven't seen this before.

[kb2vxa]

I'm watching the NTSB speech as I type, these are 3rd rail powered multiple units so with no locomotive the first and second units got it bad not to mention the SUV. The train has "black boxes" and all signals both railway and highway have recorders, one box was sent to Washington and data downloaded from the signals, the report will be issued tomorrow. I've seen a lot of wrecks being a railfan but this is the worst ever.

[N7YA]

What i just read is that it was dark, heavily congested and she got confused, possibly about which side of the bar she was on.

The two things with that is 1) Theres no mistaking a train coming at you, and 2) She knew because she got out of her car. The biggest mistake she made was trying to save her car by standing in front of it and trying to wave the train down...Forget the car, RUN! Run fast...toward and off at an angle from the trains approaching direction. The car will be a loss and you will be cited, but unlike this woman (and 5 others, including the curator of the Museum of Art there) you will get to see your kids again.

Foolish mistakes happen. Mistakes that im sure people would like a do-over for. As you recall, we just commemorated 1 year since our friend was killed on an express track in Washington. It was a foolish move, but he was anything but a slobbering idiot...he just made a fatal mistake. But the comments section on the news stories were brutal because people love hatred and pain when its not directed at them, it seems.

This lady was my age, she left a husband and three kids because of her stupid move. But i have made plenty of stupid moves in my life that i shouldnt be sitting here as a result of...luck must have been with me. I did not make those mistakes again, however. For all we know, she could have been the derpiest clod to ever take hold of a wheel or breathe air, she could also be a scientist with many awards, we dont know. Intelligence doesnt always provide the skills needed in a life and death situation. She simply put herself in a terrible situation, and it costs 6 lives and injured many others. Im sure she didnt want this to happen.

But, as stated, they still need a day or two to figure out all the details.

[N2CHX]

What i just read is that it was dark, heavily congested and she got confused, possibly about which side of the bar she was on.

The two things with that is 1) Theres no mistaking a train coming at you, and 2) She knew because she got out of her car. The biggest mistake she made was trying to save her car by standing in front of it and trying to wave the train down...Forget the car, RUN! Run fast...toward and off at an angle from the trains approaching direction. The car will be a loss and you will be cited, but unlike this woman (and 5 others, including the curator of the Museum of Art there) you will get to see your kids again.

Foolish mistakes happen. Mistakes that im sure people would like a do-over for. As you recall, we just commemorated 1 year since our friend was killed on an express track in Washington. It was a foolish move, but he was anything but a slobbering idiot...he just made a fatal mistake. But the comments section on the news stories were brutal because people love hatred and pain when its not directed at them, it seems.

This lady was my age, she left a husband and three kids because of her stupid move. But i have made plenty of stupid moves in my life that i shouldnt be sitting here as a result of...luck must have been with me. I did not make those mistakes again, however. For all we know, she could have been the derpiest clod to ever take hold of a wheel or breathe air, she could also be a scientist with many awards, we dont know. Intelligence doesnt always provide the skills needed in a life and death situation. She simply put herself in a terrible situation, and it costs 6 lives and injured many others. Im sure she didnt want this to happen.

But, as stated, they still need a day or two to figure out all the details.

True. I apologize if what I said caused offense or pain. I remember about your friend. Quite tragic.

[N7YA]

True. I apologize if what I said caused offense or pain. I remember about your friend. Quite tragic.

I appreciate you, Kel. It really wasnt directed at you at all, i know sometimes people say that to be graceful, but yours wasnt even close to the garbage i saw in those comments sections...many of Jeff's friends were ready to go find those bastards, but its only the internet. They moved on, we moved on.

I guess my point (and im guilty of this as it gets quite comfortable behind this keyboard) is trying to remember that this is a tragedy first, it shouldnt have happened and it could happen to us. And, yes, it would be candy coating things to not acknowledge that this was actually a very stupid and avoidable mistake. Neither of us intend to insult her, but im sure she would have wanted this one back.

[N8YX]

People think the term "I have the right of waaayyyyy!" somehow totally negates the laws of physics. Mass and kinetic energy will always win those arguments. Better to observe such from the sidelines.

[N7YA]

Ok...i just read more breaking details.

Turns out she was driving a Mercedes, thats never good. The guy behind her said that the gate came down on her car so she calmly got out, lifted it off her car, calmly got back in and drove forward onto the track and stopped.

I guess she wasn't outside her car, waving and trying to stop the train and she wasn't stuck, she just...drove in front of it. Even the investigators were like 'Whaaa?". I'm a little more careful these days about my opinions because i know how it feels from this end. I realize that, regardless of how senseless this was, there are three kids and a husband with their hearts torn out tonight. But the more i hear about this, the more i wish people would hold themselves accountable for each decision...like...driving through a closed rail crossing. I didnt know her personality, but i see this kind of stuff here in Vegas all the time, usually by housewives in Mercedes SUV's. Sadly, im afraid this will never even get noticed by those who are prone to do this kind of thing. :(


I'm sure more details will come in that may help clarify things.

[kd6nig]

Ok...i just read more breaking details.

Turns out she was driving a Mercedes, thats never good. The guy behind her said that the gate came down on her car so she calmly got out, lifted it off her car, calmly got back in and drove forward onto the track and stopped.

I guess she wasn't outside her car, waving and trying to stop the train and she wasn't stuck, she just...drove in front of it. Even the investigators were like 'Whaaa?". I'm a little more careful these days about my opinions because i know how it feels from this end. I realize that, regardless of how senseless this was, there are three kids and a husband with their hearts torn out tonight. But the more i hear about this, the more i wish people would hold themselves accountable for each decision...like...driving through a closed rail crossing. I didnt know her personality, but i see this kind of stuff here in Vegas all the time, usually by housewives in Mercedes SUV's. Sadly, im afraid this will never even get noticed by those who are prone to do this kind of thing. :(


I'm sure more details will come in that may help clarify things.

Considering the number of people I have seen driving "European driving machines" and ignoring the laws of physics, especially in the pouring rain, its sad that this appears to be what happened.

I'm also not overly shocked though.

I don't know how many times I've been in slowly moving traffic due to adverse conditions and someone like that goes by at the posted limit-which of course applies in best conditions-and then you see them in the ditch and standing in the road trying to flag someone down to help pull their 80 kilobuck machine out of the ditch.

[KG4NEL]

Ok...i just read more breaking details.

Turns out she was driving a Mercedes, thats never good. The guy behind her said that the gate came down on her car so she calmly got out, lifted it off her car, calmly got back in and drove forward onto the track and stopped.

I guess she wasn't outside her car, waving and trying to stop the train and she wasn't stuck, she just...drove in front of it. Even the investigators were like 'Whaaa?". I'm a little more careful these days about my opinions because i know how it feels from this end. I realize that, regardless of how senseless this was, there are three kids and a husband with their hearts torn out tonight. But the more i hear about this, the more i wish people would hold themselves accountable for each decision...like...driving through a closed rail crossing. I didnt know her personality, but i see this kind of stuff here in Vegas all the time, usually by housewives in Mercedes SUV's. Sadly, im afraid this will never even get noticed by those who are prone to do this kind of thing. :(


I'm sure more details will come in that may help clarify things.

Certainly possible that it was intentional, although taking others with you is about the lowest of the low.

[n2ize]

The NYC Subway System has trippers at each signal. When the signal is red the tripper arm is raised. If a train passes a red signal the tripper arm kills the power to the train and applies the emergency brakes, hopefully stopping it before it enters the next occupied block. Perhaps some similar system can be employed at this RR crossing. If the crossing is occupied, by a car or a gate that isn't down all the way a signal an appropriate distance ahead goes red and a tripper arm trips the train, hopefully stopping it before it enters the block that contains the crossing. However there are some issues. Commuter trains travel much faster than Subways so kicking in the emergency brake can cause passengers to be thrown and injured. Then again it's better than a collision. Something needs to be done as this is not the first hit at this crossing.

I can't understand why this woman didn't get the passengers the hell out of the car and they didn't book the hell away from there. Sounds to me like she was panic stricken and not thinking straight. If they made a run for it they would probably still be alive.

[NA4BH]

You know what, knowing Adam personally and knowing how much he values each and every one of his friends. I am going to close this thread as not to make him relive his friends passing. Should the ADMIN see otherwise and wish to leave it open, I will have no problem with that. I think all has been said about the woman's mental state, for and against. We will never know what her thoughts were because we weren't there and it wasn't us. So with that, let's let this one slide down to the bottom of the page and be clear of comment. Take a moment and wish all those involved a peaceful eternity and be thankful for those that are still around you.