One of our trains hit a person today...

[Exodus_2pt0]

Got to work, and knew something was up because 2 of our consists were still at the yard when there should only be one.

Apparently a girl was walking to work after the stop, and her walk consisted of crossing the tracks to get to a trail. There was a heavy fog, among a few other things that I will not mention that led to the event.

My partner and I had to straighten a "cut handle". It is a 3/4 inch or so solid steel rod on a locomotive used to open up the coupler. There is a standard of 2 1/2 inch clearance for that rod, to the front end of the locomotive. That bar had a bend in it so great that the clearance had closed up to 1/2".

My point? Please be safe on rail roads. You can tell yourself and others that "oh I'll hear a train coming, you must be an idiot if you get hit by a train.", but you would be very arrogant in that assumption.

I deal with measly passenger trains. Even then, the locomotive itself is 280,000 pounds. Add on 7 cars to that and you are well over the 1 million pound mark. Now get that million pounds moving at 70mph, and you have a very unforgiving force to be reckoned with.

Trains can and will sneak up on you. Aside from the horn, they are not that loud when traveling at speed. By the time you hear it, it can be too late. I have personally been caught off guard by train consists coming into our yard at the end of the day. When you add in ambient sounds, and a little distraction, it is easy to not see that train coming.

Be safe out there, train tracks are a very underestimated threat... Sadly a mistake on the rail isn't one you get to learn from.

[Reichart12]

That's sad to hear about but very well put. It seems like over the past year or so there have been a lot of incidents like this with either freight trains or amtraks in maryland

[volvolover]

was she listening to her ipood while texting her friends about her friday night plans?

[freeride53]

Very sad.

[Holland]

Very sad.

Very sad : /

[E30 Wagen]

Very sad accident. I remember being terrified of trains when I was younger because of seeing accidents on TV.

It's so true how one can be distracted enough to fail to notice something like a train. The radio in my car isn't working so during a quick errand I decided to put some headphones on while I was driving. After driving on an open country road for a few miles, suddenly the car ahead of me pulled over, and then I noticed the car in the oncoming lane had pulled over, too. Confused, I finally looked in the rearview mirror and saw the flashing lights of a quickly approaching emergency fire response vehicle, which after ripping of my headphones, had its sirens blaring. I knew that wearing headphones was illegal for this reason so I definitely felt like shit after that, and lucky I didn't get a ticket since a cop was following behind it.

[JinormusJ]

was she listening to her ipood while texting her friends about her friday night plans?

Too soon my friend

[joncrz]

Honest question... would wearing headphones mask the rumble and the loud chugging sound of a train if you were walking? What if you were not wearing headphones and it was heavy fog in both situations ?

I ask because I am from a major city and the ONLY train I have ever encountered is what we call in this city "light rail" which is powered by electricity above the train (its the prius of the train world). So those mofos are extra quite and sneak up on people.
Just recently some student was run over by a train when she crossed the light rail train on her bike with heaphones. I can see how she did not notice it barreling down on her because of how quite those trains are.

[avery0829]

I'm glad you posted this. My father is an engineer on the railroad and he says the exact same thing quite often. Once you hear it coming it is most likely too late.

[JGood]

Honest question... would wearing headphones mask the rumble and the loud chugging sound of a train if you were walking? What if you were not wearing headphones and it was heavy fog in both situations ?

I ask because I am from a major city and the ONLY train I have ever encountered is what we call in this city "light rail" which is powered by electricity above the train (its the prius of the train world). So those mofos are extra quite and sneak up on people.
Just recently some student was run over by a train when she crossed the light rail train on her bike with heaphones. I can see how she did not notice it barreling down on her because of how quite those trains are.

Guess it depends on the train. There's some sort of industrial line that rides parallel to the road I drive on to get to work, probably 100+ yards away at the closest point. Doing 50+mph in a loud v8 e30 with windows up and music on, I can feel the train coming up behind me before I see it. It literally rumbles my chest, on top of my car and music. The only way you could be walking on the tracks and not notice that, is if you were murdered and your body was dumped on the tracks.

[Sean S.]

Recently, here in the Bay Area there were 2 men killed on the tracks of our light rail system, Bay Area Rapid Transit. They were both maintenance guys out working on the tracks, they were struck and killed by a train. The protocol was for one to be working on whatever he was supposed to be working on while the other stood nearby and watched the tracks in both directions observing for oncoming trains. So if 2 experienced guys who do this for a living can be surprised and killed by a train, what chance do any of the rest of us have? I'm amazed at not only the people who walk along the tracks thinking they can hear/see a train coming miles away, but also the people who drive around the crossing gates because they can "beat the train".

[archie]

Have a car in my tow yard now that got hit by a train last week. Luckily for this kid the train was approaching the next stop and wasn't full speed. Also lucky he didn't have a passenger or that person easily would of been killed.
Train pushed the car almost to the next intersection just before the trains actual stop.
College kid decided he didn't want to wait for the train any longer and drove around two train arms and a concrete center island then wham-o!

This kid came few days ago with a relative and he was wearing a neck brace to get stuff from his car. Was dying to ask him what he was thinking but I didn't.

[E30_Pare]

because how does one get in this situation

[einhander]

was she listening to her ipood while texting her friends about her friday night plans?

No need for tasteless jokes.

You twat.

[matthugie]

Damn, that sucks. My last job was right near some tracks that run parallel (and very close) to a main road, so side roads have intersections right near the tracks. Fortunately no one was killed, but 2 cars were totalled by people stopping on the tracks in a 3 week span a while back. Thanks for the reminder.