Narrow escape from car hit by train

[Rover]

A family of five narrowly escaped being slammed into by a freight train as shocking video shows the mother and daughter running for their lives just seconds before the crash.

A video, posted to Facebook by Cody Atchley, shows a mother and daughter running hand-in-hand away from the tracks in Forney, Texas, on Tuesday, as a Union Pacific train barreled across the intersection.

The father was also seen running away from the tracks, and Atchley told DailyMail.com on Tuesday that there were five people - three children believed to be under 12 - that evacuated the car, but no one was injured.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...stuck-tracks-moments-train-plows-vehicle.html

 

[BlackDiamond]

Unfortunately I see it all the time in one city in Maine where there is a RR track and gates just before a major intersection with traffic lights. People stop all the time on the tracks waiting at the red light. Fortunately this particular line (former PanAm) only sees maybe 4 trains a day at the most but they can come at any time.

 

[railiner]

Lucky they escaped injury. They need to somehow design those crossings near signaled intersections to be “***** proof”, if possible, so that an uneducated motorist doesn’t get “trapped” on tracks, blocked by vehicles waiting for a red light.

I noticed the people ran away from the crossing, but in the wrong direction… they should have run in the direction the train was coming from, rather than in the direction it was going. Maybe not intuitive, but less likely to be struck by the vehicle or debris…

 

[Brian Battuello]

I noticed the people ran away from the crossing, but in the wrong direction… they should have run in the direction the train was coming from, rather than in the direction it was going. Maybe not intuitive, but less likely to be struck by the vehicle or debris…

That is something I had never thought about. Now I know the best direction to escape from a stuck vehicle. I wonder what I just forgot to make room for that.

 

[alpha3]

The thing I wonder is, do they not look down the tracks and see the approaching headlight?? Why sit there mindlessly on a track with an approaching train....and there must have been horns audible in the distance. Unless, of course, they're blasting music into ear buds.

 

[LookingGlassTie]

I'm thankful that none of them was injured or killed.

 

[Brian Battuello]

The thing I wonder is, do they not look down the tracks and see the approaching headlight?? Why sit there mindlessly on a track with an approaching train....and there must have been horns audible in the distance. Unless, of course, they're blasting music into ear buds.

People (including myself) are basically clueless. I don't think people associate tracks with actual trains. It is just something in the background to be dealt with while driving. Consider stories of people that turned onto railroad tracks and tried to drive on them because they thought that was what their GPS said.

My son is in the driving learning permit stage. He was driving on a Colorado dirt road and we came to a railroad crossing just marked with a sign. I told him to stop and look for trains. He said, "There's one!" I looked far left and sure enough there was one zipping toward us. I suggested he put it in reverse (carefully) and back up a few feet...

 

[WWW]

So your car will be no doubt be totaled after contact with a train engine - why not just drive into the signal arm and bend it - break it in order
to get off the track(s) - most of those signal arms are built to break apart - they aren't immovable rigid solid structures ! Best point is near the
end of the arm probably the least resistance. So you scrape some paint maybe damage a windshield window glass make a dent in the hood -
all this to save human lives - panic and not having your wits about yourself - real smart planning !

 

[Cal]

I wonder why they were just stopped on the tracks, and why all of them were STILL close to the car by that point. I'm not going to jump to final conclusions from the video but it leaves many questions about what happened.

 

[railiner]

C

I wonder why they were just stopped on the tracks, and why all of them were STILL close to the car by that point. I'm not going to jump to final conclusions from the video but it leaves many questions about what happened.

Could be that they were using poor judgement on how soon the train would get there, and were hoping the vehicles in front of them would move on, before they recognised it was too late…

In those intersections, the traffic lights are often “interlocked” with the railway crossing signals, so the highway traffic lights will remain red, until the crossing clears, therefore, unless the cars are going to make a “right on red” move, they will remain in place…

 

[railiner]

People (including myself) are basically clueless. I don't think people associate tracks with actual trains. It is just something in the background to be dealt with while driving. Consider stories of people that turned onto railroad tracks and tried to drive on them because they thought that was what their GPS said.

My son is in the driving learning permit stage. He was driving on a Colorado dirt road and we came to a railroad crossing just marked with a sign. I told him to stop and look for trains. He said, "There's one!" I looked far left and sure enough there was one zipping toward us. I suggested he put it in reverse (carefully) and back up a few feet...

One of the rules I was taught, when learning to be a professional driver, was to never shift gears while crossing tracks…

 

[allanorn]

Could be that they were using poor judgement on how soon the train would get there, and were hoping the vehicles in front of them would move on, before they recognised it was too late…

In those intersections, the traffic lights are often “interlocked” with the railway crossing signals, so the highway traffic lights will remain red, until the crossing clears, therefore, unless the cars are going to make a “right on red” move, they will remain in place…

Seems to depend on the intersection. Where I live a number of signals have pre-emption that is interlocked with the railroad crossing, so as soon as the crossing lights activate every other direction that has green immediately turns yellow, then red. After that the road affected by the crossing turns green for all maneuvers, so drivers can clear the tracks. By this point the boom barriers have been lowered for at least a couple of seconds so the risk is low that someone will drive around them to make the light.

I can't tell in the video if there was pre-emption or if there was enough space (in theory) that it wasn't designed in. But I've also seen all lights turn red or flashing red at similar intersections in other states.

 

[billosborn]

One time I took a one day "refresher" course in Drivers Education, as an option to avoid a fine for a traffic infraction. The instructor talking about railroad crossings said "Just remember - tie goes to the train".... He went on to relate to us that his father was a freight locomotive engineer for 30 years.. in those 30 years, he "tied" 4 cars.. won all 4... As shocking as that might seem, decades later I still remember what he said.

 

[TrainOtter]

In the "tracks don't mean trains...until they do" category, I was sitting at an intersection waiting for the lights. There was space between the lines marking the intersection and the tracks for one car, then the single track. I was behind the tracks, leaving them empty. Some *bleep* in a small sports car comes zipping around to take up the space between me and the car at the intersection.

Mr. Nyah I'm Ahead of You turned into Mr. Needs His Front Seat Steam Cleaned as the crossing arm came down behind him. Mr. Sportscar couldn't get off the tracks except forward. The car in front didn't move. He had all kinds of time to get out and watch his pretty little car get turned into scrap metal because the train moved very slowly thru that area, mostly because the tracks were not good. I couldn't see what if anything was happening inside the car because the crossing arm blocked my view.

Mr. Sportscar finally pulled his car onto the very narrow sidewalk, nose touching the light pole that blocked him from just driving on thru. Train came slowly past, engine and a couple of cars of lumber for the lumber yard. Crossing arms went up, lights changed, we all drove off. Except Mr. Sportscar. Last I saw of him, he was still nose first against the light pole.

 

[Bembidion]

I was amazed when I lived in SC near the NS mainland that so many cars tried to beat the train. Now I'm in Connecticut where there a lot of trains but never see people being foolish trying to beat the train.

 

[Brian Battuello]

Mr. Needs His Front Seat Steam Cleaned

Love it! Why can't life always be like that...

 

[Bob Dylan]

I was amazed when I lived in SC near the NS mainland that so many cars tried to beat the train. Now I'm in Connecticut where there a lot of trains but never see people being foolish trying to beat the train.

But you will, people are people no matter where they live!

 

[TrainOtter]

Love it! Why can't life always be like that...

You see people do dumb sh...stuff like that and think, you're going to regret that behavior some day. I was delighted to see "some day" happen right in front of me, with no severe damage or fatal consequences.