ExCon90 wrote:There used to be a rule in the AAR standard rules that "any object waved violently by any person standing on or near the tracks is a signal to stop," and I think most railroads incorporated it in their own rulebooks. However, that doesn't alter the fact that the film crew was denied permission to film and ignored the denial. They had no business to be there, period. As to flares, anyone placing the flares would need to know how far away to place them, and anyone having enough knowledge for that would know better than to participate in such dangerous foolishness in the first place, as did the very sensible individual who refused to go along with it.
Its called a "Washout Signal", and, yes, stopping is required. However, once the train stopped on signal or in response to fusees/flares and it was determined that the stop was caused by unauthorized trespassers, the culprits would have been charged with said trespass and unauthorized interference with trains. These could also involved
FEDERAL charges as well. You do not interfere with train operations! Period! This goes back to the era of train robberies, the old West, and the Pinkerton detectives who were the basis of railroad dicks today. It would have been a good thing if they HAD stopped the train on that fatal night as lives would have been saved because of it. But the culprits who tampered with the train with unauthorized fusees would have wished they hadn't when CSX learned of it.
There's no excuse for such recklessness on the parts of fools who will not take trains seriously. They are not toys for our pleasure!
GF