People do some ODD things!

There was an elderly lady that became confused, apparently, and drove down the NS Right of Way this afternoon. She was (I think) trying to turn into a local fish house and somehow confused the track as being the way into the restaurant. You'd have to see the situation to understand how she could even GET into such a predicament. The track comes off the NS mainline and CURVES around to "straddle" the street dividing the thoroughfare into a boulevard. Maybe she was blinded by the evening sun.................I dunno, but she drove down the tracks for a short distance until the Town Car almost got hung up on the rails! The gauge was fouled, but the car MAY have been able to have reversed carefully back to "solid" ground. Didn't seem to have been any harm done. They were awaiting Triple A when I left.............................. No trains due, no danger. Sure had to be embarassing!!!

Gadfly

Whereabouts was this, Gadfly?

This might just have been a lot more than that. A buddy of mine usually has lunch with me every month or so. This one day he failed to show up at our favorite cafeteria. After about half an hour, I phoned his wife and she told me that he had left on time. As I talked to her on the phone, he pulled up. She was relieved and I found out that he had "gotten lost". And that was the last time we took lunch together with him driving to the cafeteria. We met in a mall, that his wife drove him to, and I took him from there. Possibly the onset of Altzheimers.

charlie6017 wrote:Whereabouts was this, Gadfly?

Gastonia, NC. I learned today that this is not the first time this has happened at that location.

Gadfly

My first crossing accident was under just about the exact same circumstances. Heading up the mtn's around 2am we come around the bend and see some lights shinning down the track. Which left us totally baffled as to wtf it was until our lights shinned down on a mini van. Well long story short a couple that was severely stoned outta there minds thought for some reason that the road went right. The only thing to the right was the main line from his story his wife was driving drove down the tracks about 150 yrds, and got stuck. So leave it to us to do our good deed for the day and come by and get them unstuck: ). It wasnt till we stopped and I went running back that I found out they were impaired and had a baby along for the ride. Luck for them and the child they made like a Hollywood movie and got out at the last moment. Wish I woulda counted all the tickets OSP wrote them as well as the RR Bull duplicating the same ones, I quit counting at 6 a peice.

There was a van on the rails near Avon NJ, on the NJ Coast Line, a little over a year ago. There was access to the ROW from where the old Avon station used to be, from a parking lot behind town hall, and around 11 PM they bumped north on the ties for about a hundred yards. It was a dare, and the dummy driving took it. Might have also been alcohol related, never did find that out.

They needed to be towed off, I saw the wrecker and a few cops there.

Duh.

Gadfly wrote:

charlie6017 wrote:Whereabouts was this, Gadfly?

Gastonia, NC. I learned today that this is not the first time this has happened at that location.

Gadfly

It happens all over the North America lord knows what these people are thinking thats if they have any kind of a mind left.

Okay, here goes: Southern California has its share as well. Last night, this fellow in a late model Ferrari got stuck on the tracks. He got on the cell phone and called 911, the operator realized this fellow was as drunk as a skunk, and ordered him to leave the car, get OUT of the car. This he did, and the next sound you hear is that of UP wiping out the Ferrari. The drunk then reports to the operator, " The Ferrari is gone."

Southern California? UP? How about Northville Michigan. That used to be served by C&O so likely is CSX.

http://www.foxnews.com/video2/video08.h ... xnews.com/

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but Fox News was WRONG! If you google the suspect's name, his shop is in Dallas. When the 911 operator answers, she says Grayson County 911. That's in Texas, here is a link to a more complete video, the service truck sure doesn't look like a csx truck. http://www.break.com/index/911-call-aft ... train.html

OK, we go from California to Michigan to Texas!

I don't know which is worse, losing your Ferrari to a train, or having the whole world listen to you on the web, and knowing what an idiot you are!

FOX NEWS WRONG?!?!? That is news. Here's one, guy parks his car on tracks to, yes, commit suicide. Problem #1: double track mainline. Picks wrong track, gets taged on the bumper and spun outa the way. Problem #2: Car disabled, crossing is blocked, and is only way outa deadend street in a rural farm field. Cops arrive and find person to be the one they have been searching for several hours on an arrest warrant.

A few years ago, I was taking pictures at the South Amboy, NJ Station at about 3 am Just as a showstorm was ending. I saw a couple pf lights coming from the direction of ESSAY Tower. To my surprise, it was NOT a train, but a DRUNK driving a pickup with two flat tires down the tracks into the station. He said he was coming from Perth Amboy and was looking for his house!!! I would LOVE to know where he got on to the tracks because I was at the FIRST grade crossing from the Amtrak NE Corridor on the North Jersey Coast Line. The only thing I could think of was that he somehow got down to the tracks somewhere by Raritan River Steel, and crossed the Raritan River Movable Bridge, went past ESSAY tower and into South Amboy. He eventually was stopped by a South Amboy Policeman while trying to drive down Broadway on a couple of rims in the snow... Needless to say, he spent the night in the drunk tank back at PD HQ.

I would love to know HOW he ever got over that bridge...

At least people are getting better with their GPSes, remember a few years ago when they were just starting to get popular, people would hear "turn right" and without even looking, would end up on the tracks, or someone's front yard, or a store front?

Once while working for the Hobo Railroad in Lincoln NH, I was returning from somewhere in a hyrail truck (on the road at the time) and while passing the ski shop at the entrance, I saw a car parked on the tracks. I went into the ski shop and started asking around, who's car was that. I found some guy who said "those tracks are abandoned, I've been coming up here for years and never once have I seen a train". I responded with "well, if you look out that window over there, see that bright light coming through the trees with the smoke blowing from it?" He said "ok, I'll just be a few more minutes, I still gotta find a pair of skis for my wife" (this was in July). I said "ok, the station's down that road, if your car's not here when you come out, it'll be all the way down there in a crumpled wreck". As I walked back out to the truck, the guy followed me out, complaining about how "I" wouldn't give him a few more minutes to do his shopping.

RedLantern wrote:At least people are getting better with their GPSes, remember a few years ago when they were just starting to get popular, people would hear "turn right" and without even looking, would end up on the tracks, or someone's front yard, or a store front?

Once while working for the Hobo Railroad in Lincoln NH, I was returning from somewhere in a hyrail truck (on the road at the time) and while passing the ski shop at the entrance, I saw a car parked on the tracks. I went into the ski shop and started asking around, who's car was that. I found some guy who said "those tracks are abandoned, I've been coming up here for years and never once have I seen a train". I responded with "well, if you look out that window over there, see that bright light coming through the trees with the smoke blowing from it?" He said "ok, I'll just be a few more minutes, I still gotta find a pair of skis for my wife" (this was in July). I said "ok, the station's down that road, if your car's not here when you come out, it'll be all the way down there in a crumpled wreck". As I walked back out to the truck, the guy followed me out, complaining about how "I" wouldn't give him a few more minutes to do his shopping.

WOW what a complete moron. That right there is an awesome story Thanks for sharing!!