Level crossing stupidity...

[Gary H]

If that had been a level crossing where it was filmed, it would have taken approx 8 minuets for the train to clear so it to be open for road traffic again.  

And as we are all to familiar, there lies atleast some the problem in America especially.

Those stack trains were not hanging around, on the other hand Ive seen some video's of US freights that take longer than 10 minutes to clear a crossing!

[Adrian Wintle]

And as we are all to familiar, there lies atleast some the problem in America especially.

Those stack trains were not hanging around, on the other hand Ive seen some video's of US freights that take longer than 10 minutes to clear a crossing!

 

The crossing where I sometimes got to take photos crosses one end of a siding (passing loop). I have seen a train parked in the siding to pass two the other way, blocking the crossing for upwards of half an hour. See the 4th photo here http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/86481-southern-ontario-pictures/

 

Adrian

[RJS1977]

 

I love your analogy of Southend Pier at 70mph - sounds like something that would've been in The Goon Show.....

 

I don't know about that, but there was an episode of "The Navy Lark" where the crew of HMS Troutbridge were sent into the Solent to apprehend and drag back to Porstmouth a suspected smuggling vessel. By the end of the episode they'd towed about everything else in the Solent back to Portsmouth - including Ryde Pier! 

[John_Hughes]

A few years ago in Canada the biggest cause of crossing accidents on the prairies - where you really can see for miles and miles in many places - was drivers smashing into the side of trains that were already on the crossing.

[Ramblin Rich]

Again, not UK but 'group stupidity' as cycle racers go around a closed barrier in France

http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2015/apr/12/paris-roubaix-cyclists-train-level-crossing

In the rules this is forbidden and will result in elimination, so a number of riders are going to have bad news at the end - as they should! The commentary implies the TGV slowed down, but don't really know if that's the case.

[Guest]

Again, not UK but 'group stupidity' as cycle racers go around a closed barrier in France

http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2015/apr/12/paris-roubaix-cyclists-train-level-crossing

In the rules this is forbidden and will result in elimination, so a number of riders are going to have bad news at the end - as they should! The commentary implies the TGV slowed down, but don't really know if that's the case.

 

Rich, someone's already started a thread on this, but I totally agree... group stupidity instead of individual stupidity.

 

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/98223-when-cycle-racing-meets-a-train/

[Mod3]

I have moved the posts which were made after Pete had pointed out the existing topic for the cycles meet train incident, can we keep any discussion regarding that incident in the thread please.

 

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/98223-when-cycle-racing-meets-a-train/

 

This topic has been temporarily locked to encourage this.

[Welly]

The level crossing at Hykeham near Lincoln will have a safety camera installed to catch out jumpers. Ashfordby LC will have the same.

 

http://www.lincolnshireecho.co.uk/Cameras-installed-level-crossings-prosecute/story-26348911-detail/story.html

[The Stationmaster]

The level crossing at Hykeham near Lincoln will have a safety camera installed to catch out jumpers. Ashfordby LC will have the same.

 

http://www.lincolnshireecho.co.uk/Cameras-installed-level-crossings-prosecute/story-26348911-detail/story.html

There was a big ruckus over the monitoring cameras installed at a crossing near us - I can see it getting a lot noisier if they are replaced with some which look like that!

[wombatofludham]

Our new barriers on the formerly open crossing at Fairbourne have had these triffid cameras installed.  Highly visible, as they should be to really ram it home to the moronic British motorists that a level crossing isn't somewhere to play chicken with a train.  Given both the most recent cars under train events on the previously open Fairbourne crossing were villagers, and that virtually every train using the crossing is moving slowly either arriving at or departing from the station next door and hence clearly in sight, I don't believe it is humanly possible to over estimate the complete stupidity of many motorists driving around today and therefore I'm in favour of such high-visibility enforcement. 

 

I'm just rather annoyed the whole installation costing north of £100,000 has diverted funds from arguably more important investment for the railways such as station improvements or capacity enhancements.  An open crossing next door to a station where all trains stop (bar specials) must be as statistically safe as any open crossing can be, putting in barriers because two local numpties manage to get themselves under a two hourly dmu seems to me to be a waste of money.

[96701]

Our new barriers on the formerly open crossing at Fairbourne have had these triffid cameras installed.  Highly visible, as they should be to really ram it home to the moronic British motorists that a level crossing isn't somewhere to play chicken with a train.  Given both the most recent cars under train events on the previously open Fairbourne crossing were villagers, and that virtually every train using the crossing is moving slowly either arriving at or departing from the station next door and hence clearly in sight, I don't believe it is humanly possible to over estimate the complete stupidity of many motorists driving around today and therefore I'm in favour of such high-visibility enforcement. 

 

I'm just rather annoyed the whole installation costing north of £100,000 has diverted funds from arguably more important investment for the railways such as station improvements or capacity enhancements.  An open crossing next door to a station where all trains stop (bar specials) must be as statistically safe as any open crossing can be, putting in barriers because two local numpties manage to get themselves under a two hourly dmu seems to me to be a waste of money.

Unfortunately all level crossing improvements are costed and based on either the dumbest of numpties and or the youngest of children. If the improvements result in a life saved, then I'm all for it.

[The Stationmaster]

Unfortunately all level crossing improvements are costed and based on either the dumbest of numpties and or the youngest of children. If the improvements result in a life saved, then I'm all for it.

The crossing near us - originally an AOC(L) but now with added barriers - has had a series of collisions over the years although fortunately all without fatality or serious injury.  It is protected by a galaxy of red lights on the road approaches and yet one halfwit wrote to the local 'paper saying part of the problem was that you couldn't see a (Up) train coming!1.  Down trains start from the immediately adjacent station platform and there are /were usually some dumbo pedestrian idiots who think they can pop off the train and beat it over the crossing although some additional trespass guards I noted last weekend should finally put a stop to that.

 

The problem is utterly and completely down to the idiots using the and who are too impatient to wait even half a minute for the train to clear.

[wombatofludham]

The crossing near us - originally an AOC(L) but now with added barriers - has had a series of collisions over the years although fortunately all without fatality or serious injury.  It is protected by a galaxy of red lights on the road approaches and yet one halfwit wrote to the local 'paper saying part of the problem was that you couldn't see a (Up) train coming!1.  Down trains start from the immediately adjacent station platform and there are /were usually some dumbo pedestrian idiots who think they can pop off the train and beat it over the crossing although some additional trespass guards I noted last weekend should finally put a stop to that.

 

The problem is utterly and completely down to the idiots using the and who are too impatient to wait even half a minute for the train to clear.

 

Sounds very like Fairbourne.

 

Whilst I would agree that any investment to save lives is worthwhile, it has to be proportionate.  Our shiny new half barriers do nothing to protect pedestrians who might put themselves in danger in front of the train either deliberately or genuinely by accident and my understanding is that apart from the two locals getting hit about two years ago by driving across the crossing despite the lights working properly, there have been no deaths or serious injuries on our crossing since it was converted to AOC(L) status in the 1980s, so whilst I understand there is a programme to gradually eliminate AOC crossings across the network, I would have thought that Fairbourne would have been one of the last to be converted given it has a relatively low risk.  Unfortunately our local councillor, helped by some of my more histrionic neighbours, whipped up a publicity maelstrom and I suspect that is why it got done sooner rather than later.

[bodmin16]

Sounds very like Fairbourne.

 

Whilst I would agree that any investment to save lives is worthwhile, it has to be proportionate.  Our shiny new half barriers do nothing to protect pedestrians who might put themselves in danger in front of the train either deliberately or genuinely by accident and my understanding is that apart from the two locals getting hit about two years ago by driving across the crossing despite the lights working properly, there have been no deaths or serious injuries on our crossing since it was converted to AOC(L) status in the 1980s, so whilst I understand there is a programme to gradually eliminate AOC crossings across the network, I would have thought that Fairbourne would have been one of the last to be converted given it has a relatively low risk.  Unfortunately our local councillor, helped by some of my more histrionic neighbours, whipped up a publicity maelstrom and I suspect that is why it got done sooner rather than later.

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/411030/110728_R122011_AOCLs_Class_Inv.pdf

 

The answer may lie in this publication.

[wombatofludham]

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/411030/110728_R122011_AOCLs_Class_Inv.pdf

 

The answer may lie in this publication.

 

Thanks for the link, a very informative and interesting read.  I'm amazed that the very factors I would have thought would reduce the risk at Fairbourne crossing, i.e low speed limit, station next to the crossing, low frequency of service and relatively low road traffic levels actually increase the risk of particularly local drivers deliberately abusing the lights, which seems counter intuitive.  Clearly the development of the lower cost half barrier design and the assessment of the human factors involved in the abuse of AOCL crossings has given Network Rail a good value-for-money assessment matrix to prioritise their replacement or upgrading.

 

Genuine Damascene conversion on my part!

[big jim]

thats an interesting read, i like the list of open crossings and the number of incidents, frightening really!

 

93 incidents at bucknell, thats the crossing with the famous cctv of the old boy in the reliant robin being side swiped by a 150 then getting out and checking his engine

 

in fact a lot of the high incident ones on the western are on the heart of wales line

[Kenton]

 

in fact a lot of the high incident ones on the western are on the heart of wales line

That implies something - but my lips are sealed

Edited April 19, 2015 by Kenton

[The Stationmaster]

 

That implies something - but my lips are sealed

But then the worst one, by a big margin, on the Western is the one nearest to where you live (and it also happens to be the one nearest to where I live)    

[Budgie]

Here's another one; again not the UK, but Bessemer, Alabama

 

http://www.al.com/news/birmingham/index.ssf/2015/04/authorities_are_on_the_scene_o.html

[Adrian Wintle]

Here's another one; again not the UK, but Bessemer, Alabama

 

http://www.al.com/news/birmingham/index.ssf/2015/04/authorities_are_on_the_scene_o.html

 

That is the Crescent, Amtrak's premier train between New Orleans and New York. Based on the photos - 2 P42s (8500 HP total), 4 Amfleet coaches, an Amfleet Club/Cafe, a Horizon diner?, 2? Viewliner sleepers, but only 67 passengers.

 

It would appear that the train was undamaged.

 

Adrian

[Spitfire2865]

People say she doesnt deserve harsh words. Yes she does. This kind of event can affect others far more than physical wounds. Id hate to hear the drivers perspective, or those in the cars she cut off.

[faulcon1]

What I find on here is all the comments on the law regarding level crossings. Does anyone here know or even care for the train driver who is approaching a level crossing at speed when at the last moment a car zig zags round the barrier and gets hit by the train. There's nothing the driver can do. Trains don't stop on a 10 cent piece.

Do people care what it's like for a train driver to have a suicide. A job she or he loves to do can sometimes be brutally taken away in a millisecond. Some train drivers get back in the cab the next day and others take months to recover. Some never recover. The modern trend of placing flowers at accident sites is often a constant unwanted reminder to that train driver who has to drive past the accident spot.

A preserved railway had one of it's volunteers suicide and on their face book page were loads of comments on what a fantastic person the volunteer was. How tragic his death was and how terrible it is for his family. Yet not one word for the poor train driver who's train killed him. I had a go at them on their face book page and was barred.

Having worked on the real railways I've seen what stupid people who lose their lives does to train drivers. One accident here New South Wales involved two 86 class electrics on a 3,300 ton coal train doing 80kph through a station and two girls who couldn't be bothered to walk via the footbridge from one platform to another. They decided to cross by the railway lines between the two platforms. There was a thin girl and a fat girl. The thin girl clambered up onto the platform but the fat girl couldn't and the thin one was trying to pull her up when the to 86class locos went through the station.  The thin girl took off screaming. It took a few kilometers to pull the train up. I knew the driver and he was a really great bloke but he was never the same again. He was affected for life.      

Edited May 2, 2015 by Andy Y

[Grovenor]

 

Does anyone here know or even care for the train driver who is approaching a level crossing at speed when at the last moment a car zig zags round the barrier and gets hit by the train.

If you read through these level crossing topics there are plenty of references to the train drivers and the effect on them, expressing sympathy etc. The discussions cannot be restricted to that alone!

Regards

Keith

[Reorte]

The effects it has on other people is probably one of the reasons people get so angry at stupid behaviour on level crossings.

[Kenton]

 

on their face book page were loads of comments on what a fantastic person *** was.

 

This always is the case. It goes along with the mentality that seems to say "never speak ill of the dead". Whoever it is is always presented as a perfect little angel who has never done anything wrong. I will never condone a death being presented in an overtly bad light or libelously, But I don't like the way the dead are made out to be god-like. Why cannot it just be annouced with honestly, the good and the not so good? A death can be tragic, it can be sudden or prolonged, it can be unexpected and unpredictable but is innevitable.

 

not one word for the poor train driver who's train killed him.

It is sad, but I think the public see it as a part of the job. They think the same of the police, ambulance, nursing, pathology, military, undertaking ... professions. Indeed all those that can come into regular contact with death. They have some sort of built-in immunity?