UP has a near-miss with a propane truck

[Ryan]

http://www.uprr.com/newsinfo/community_ties/2013/december/1210_propane.shtml

When a propane truck became high centered on a rail crossing in Bell City, Mo., a UP civil construction work group acted quickly to prevent a tragedy.

The group has been working in the area for more than seven months, laying six miles of new rail and installing new grade crossings on the double main line. Recently the work involved temporarily closing a highway-rail crossing, and a detour system was put in place to safely divert traffic.

"A local truck driver tried to beat the system and save five minutes by going around the detours to another nearby crossing," said UP's Dwain Taylor, track systems foreman. "His mistake could have cost us all our lives."

Working about 1,000 feet away, SEMA Contractor Ken Grossman saw the trucks situation and radioed an urgent alert to Taylor, which set the team in motion.

Taylor knew UP-4462 North was approaching and immediately radioed the train crew, whose locomotive engineer put the train into emergency.

Lucky for everyone involved, that would have been on heck of a mess.

 

[SarahZ]

:angry:

 

[FriskyFL]

The driver needed more than "education"...that bozo has no business behind the wheel of anything bigger than a clown car.

 

[AmtrakBlue]

This reminds me of my drive home on Sunday during the snowstorm. Traffic in the opposite direction was at a stand still and when I approached and crossed some tracks, I was amazed (well, maybe not) that two cars were too close to, if not on, the tracks.

 

[Devil's Advocate]

This seems like something that should result in serious career altering penalties rather than endless reeducation of people too careless or clueless to learn how to drive safely in the first place. Maybe it's time to stop taking truckers at their word and start doing background checks and psychiatric evaluations.

This reminds me of my drive home on Sunday during the snowstorm. Traffic in the opposite direction was at a stand still and when I approached and crossed some tracks, I was amazed (well, maybe not) that two cars were too close to, if not on, the tracks.

Two cars is not even 1/100th the problem of a commercial vehicle. Not to mention that if a train did come they might have a chance to get out of the way whereas the high centered truck is truly stuck.

 

[AmtrakBlue]

This seems like something that should result in serious career altering penalties rather than endless reeducation of people too careless or clueless to learn how to drive safely in the first place. Maybe it's time to stop taking truckers at their word and start doing background checks and psychiatric evaluations.

This reminds me of my drive home on Sunday during the snowstorm. Traffic in the opposite direction was at a stand still and when I approached and crossed some tracks, I was amazed (well, maybe not) that two cars were too close to, if not on, the tracks.

Two cars is not even 1/100th the problem of a commercial vehicle. Not to mention that if a train did come they might have a chance to get out of the way whereas the high centered truck is truly stuck.

Well, considering the road conditions, I doubt they could have gotten out of the way QUICKLY. And, yes, I know it's no where as serious as the trucks. I was just reminded of other driver's stupidity. I certainly wasn't expecting anyone to give my post any thought, so thank you for considering it worthy of a mention.