Level crossing stupidity...

[Fat Controller]

1 hour ago, PhilJ W said:

Apparently the car was empty.

Perhaps the people on board had bailed out before the train arrived?

[The Stationmaster]

3 hours ago, GrumpyPenguin said:

Fortunatly there were no injuries.

 

I know this crossing well and if you approach it from the A28 you go down a steep hill and at the bottom you have a sharp 90 deg bed and you are immediatly at the railway boundary/barriers.

 

It is well signed but it's easy to see how it could catch some people out. (mostly from the A28 direction but it's not the best, sightline wise from the other direction - not too good for the train drivers either).

Looking at it on Google Street View the lights are visible from quite a way back on both sides of the railway and well within car stopping distance from the crossing.  Which of course does not rule out either a crossing fault, a fault on the road vehicle, or various impairments (e.g. alcohol or sheer bravado) impacting the performance of the car driver

[Michael Hodgson]

1 hour ago, Fat Controller said:

Perhaps the people on board had bailed out before the train arrived?

I suspect most people have little idea of the order of magnitude jn the difference in mass between cars and trains and the physics involved.  Maybe road safety campaigns have given them an inflated idea of what seat belts and air bags can do to protect them and given them a false sense of security?

 

In some cases the reason for bailing out is that it's a stolen car and they are quite happy to run away from the authorities without consideration for anybody on the train.

[Wickham Green too]

1 hour ago, Fat Controller said:

Perhaps the people on board had bailed out before the train arrived?

If they'd been hoping to catch the train they were 58 years too late.