Cab footage of Train vs. Car

[Ryan]

This is why you stop when the lights are flashing, folks.



The fact that it takes the train 40 seconds to stop really drives home how important it is to stop when the crossing gates do their thing.

This is from Canton, MI - the accident happened in July 2009 and killed all 5 occupants of the vehicle.

http://lubbockonline.com/stories/071109/nat_462029640.shtml

 

[Tumbleweed]

Never pick on a train....You WILL come out second best.....

 

[amtrakwolverine]

.........................

 

[FriskyFL]

Condolences to the crew, first responders, and passengers.

 

[Dan O]

Condolences to the crew, first responders, and passengers.

Belated condolences to the families of the 5 dead kids.

Dan

 

[SarahZ]

Oh my god.

 

[SP&S]

There was a surveillance camera that catches a different view of this - the video's probably still up on YouTube. While not showing the actual collision you can tell that a large white vehicle had stopped for the crossing and these kids went around it without slowing down at all. I did some pretty stupid stuff when I was young, but even then I knew a fact of simple physics, the train is going to win. Sad, senseless, and preventable.

 

[Texan Eagle]

There was a surveillance camera that catches a different view of this - the video's probably still up on YouTube. While not showing the actual collision you can tell that a large white vehicle had stopped for the crossing and these kids went around it without slowing down at all. I did some pretty stupid stuff when I was young, but even then I knew a fact of simple physics, the train is going to win. Sad, senseless, and preventable.

Here you go-

 

[Devil's Advocate]

Sad, senseless, and preventable.

Yeah, but if you prevented it they'd just find some other sad and senseless way to die.

 

[Ryan]

There was a surveillance camera that catches a different view of this - the video's probably still up on YouTube. While not showing the actual collision you can tell that a large white vehicle had stopped for the crossing and these kids went around it without slowing down at all. I did some pretty stupid stuff when I was young, but even then I knew a fact of simple physics, the train is going to win. Sad, senseless, and preventable.

Here you go-

Thanks! I remember that video, I didn't realize they were both of the same incident.

You can add "getting into the car with someone driving on a suspended license" to the "things you ought be smart enought not to do" list, too.

 

[user 1215]

Why was this thread moved? It was an Amtrak train...though it was 4 years ago...

 

[Anderson]

Yeesh. Condolences to the operating crew (engineer(s) and conductor alike...I can't imagine having to "walk the train" in that situation), first responders, bystanders, and indeed the victims' families.

 

[RobertB]

Sad, senseless, and preventable.

Yeah, but if you prevented it they'd just find some other sad and senseless way to die.

Not necessarily. The challenge with teens and early 20-somethings is to keep them alive long enough for that frontal lobe to catch up with the rest of the body!

If you can make it past 25, you're home free. (Just ask your car insurance agent.)

 

[PaulM]

The challenge with teens and early 20-somethings is to keep them alive long enough for that frontal lobe to catch up with the rest of the body!

If you can make it past 25, you're home free.

When I was a student, we were taught that 7 was the "age of reason". Were they off by that many years?

 

[SarahZ]

"The frontal lobes begin to mature more fully in middle school. The maturation continues through high school and adulthood. The frontal lobes are a more recent evolutionary development in brains and allow humans to evaluate and adapt their behavior based on past experience.

The frontal lobes are also thought to be where social understanding and empathy reside. The refined development of the frontal white matter tracts begins around age 12 and continues into the twenties.This region of the brain is crucial for higher cognitive functions, appropriate social behaviors, and the development of formal operations.These tracts develop in an orderly fashion and experience appears to contribute to further development.

As connecting tracts in the frontal lobes become more refined, adolescents are expected to “think” about their behaviors and to change these behaviors. Unfortunately, this is the time when adolescents are more risk-prone and impulsive than adults. Some of this tendency is linked to changes in hormonal development as well as in brain changes."

http://www.apa.org/education/k12/brain-function.aspx

 

[DET63]

The APA information linked by Sorcha is probably accurate, but only in a general sense. Some young children show an incredible amount of maturity and common sense; conversely, some young and not-so-young adults show a nearly complete lack of these same qualities. Often examples of both can be found in the same family.

Like Robin Williams' character in Good Will Hunting, all I can ever say to the crew is, "It's not your fault."

 

[SarahZ]

That was just a response to Paul, not the thread in general. He had asked about the age at which the process normally occurs.