Car and Train Crash - John Dunn, Consultant,, Ambertec, P.E., P.C.

The following URL is from msn.com and depicts a tragic car and train crash.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/three-people-are-dead-and-three-children-injured-after-a-vehicle-was-struck-by-a-train/ar-AALtW2d?li=BBnb7Kz

From this URL and several kluged-together screen shots, we have the following:

The male driver, a female passenger and a ten year old child all died. Three other children were reported as being in critical condition. Although the investigation was stated as "ongoing", I cannot help but see this horror as the result of driver stupidity. 

I can recall from some years ago, the same stupid move of someone driving across a train track and "around the gate" having caused a similar car and train crash on New South Road in Hicksville, NY. I can also recall an incident where I personally witnessed a car being driven across a train track and "around the gate" going northbound on Main Street in Mineola, NY. In that case, the driver got away with it.

The abysmal fact of modern life is that stupid people will continue to exist. Their "around the gate" behavior will continue to be repeated over and over again and will continue to result in losses of life, but perhaps that loss of life could be lessened by modifications to gated track crossings.

This situation is facilitated by the physical possibility of maneuvering a vehicle past a downed crossing gate:

The addition of a second gate arm could block this move:

While some aggressive dunce might breach a dual arm gate arrangement anyway such as by speeding up like h--l to get through before gate closure, I think there might be an overall diminution of such tragedies as reported above.

Comments?

Comments

[John Dunn]

Reflecting further on the subject, a vehicle that happens to be on the tracks at the moment an oncoming train has been detected needs to be removed from the tracks as quickly as possible. The present gate configurations allow two possible escape paths where a dual gate configuration would provide only one path and that one path might obstructed.

A dual arm gate arrangement is maybe not such a good idea after all. It would be better to just eliminate the grade level crossings altogether.

That was actually done in Bellmore, NY where Newbridge Road crosses the tracks of the Long Island Railroad (LIRR). When I first came to that location back in 1969, that intersection was a grade level crossing with a crossing gate. The track was later elevated.

End of peril.