OT - Don't trust the Railroad Crossing gates!

Botch

http://kutv.com/news/local/uta-crossing-gates-were-up-at-the-time-of-frontrunner-crash
 
Scary, scary video!  Fortunately, no one was even injured.  

NPHuskerFL

Crossing Arm Mechanical or human error...either way that could've been much worse. I was raised in a UP town. I learned early on in life... You can stop, trains can't!  Don't risk your life or more importantly other life's because you're in a rush. 
This is sign in a remote / rural Nebraska town. 


My buddy was the first one on scene at this one. Body was thrown over 100ft away. Stupid!!!
http://www.news4jax.com/news/local/mother-killed-when-train-hits-car-in-orange-park

SaintJohnsEgger

@NPHuskerFL that was an Amtrak train and they fly down that track. My in-laws live with that track about 60 feet off the end of their driveway for 40+ years. You get used to the noise but I was always leery of the speed of those trains.

I'm guessing "Da Burg" refers to Middleburg? I remember when that was all 2 lane road and rural. Remember the airplane fuselage next to the bridge over Black Creek?

berndcrisp

WHEW!!

Hoosier_Smoker

Retired with over 42 years on the railroad.  I still get chills when I think of some of the near misses I witnessed.  Some could be considered daydreaming or otherwise not paying attention but many times it was obvious that they were trying to beat the train.  Had a few that weren't near misses.  Those really ruin your day.

Dobie

I see people stop on the tracks at lights routinely, just dumb. 

Fred19Flintstone

I grew up in a town that was a crossroads for East-West tracks outside Detroit and north-south tracks going to Midland (Dow Chemical).  We had very few Amtrack trains flying through.  Freight trains move slower, but they take 10 minutes to stop.  When i was younger I had nightmares about stalling on the tracks.  Really scary.

Gulfcoastguy

Gates are mechanical devices and all such things can break down. I'm sure that there was also an "X" sign. That means railroad crossing cross at your own risk.

NPHuskerFL

SaintJohnsEgger said:

I'm guessing "Da Burg" refers to Middleburg? I remember when that was all 2 lane road and rural. Remember the airplane fuselage next to the bridge over Black Creek?

Correct. 
When I purchased our home it was 2 lanes out with little to nothing besides the WinnDixie. Don't recall a fuselage next to the bridge.

RRP

I grew up in the 50's in a small town in the middle of Missouri that was bisected by a haul ass freight train twice a day. When I was 14 I witnessed the aftermath of 4 teens (3 were brothers and the driver was in my sister's class) who tried to beat the afternoon hauler. At that time there were no barricades - just common sense which was to prevail when you saw those big white X warning signs and heard the screaming train whistle. They tried to beat a 45MPH train and lost - talk about stupid! - and creamed.

SaintJohnsEgger

NPHuskerFL said:

SaintJohnsEgger said:

I'm guessing "Da Burg" refers to Middleburg? I remember when that was all 2 lane road and rural. Remember the airplane fuselage next to the bridge over Black Creek?

Correct. 
When I purchased our home it was 2 lanes out with little to nothing besides the WinnDixie. Don't recall a fuselage next to the bridge.

I don't know when it vanished but it was there on the east side of the bridge down near the water in the early '80s. I used to see it every time we convoyed down to Camp Blanding for drills.