Rail Boy wrote:As a railroad employee, and a typical know it all, I too am usually quick to blame the driver of the car. When it is someone you know, or someone a loved one knows, as in this case, it is a whole different story.
My fiance came home today and told me that someone who she knew was hit by a train in that area. I remembered the incident and remembered myself down-talking the person who disrupted service for hundreds of people throughout the rush hour and who scared this engineer and conductor for life. Of course, I felt like a complete ass.
Without going into the details of what happened, as I heard it at least third hand, it appears to be a mistake that ANY one of US could do.
This brought to my attention that we, as employees and fans, are more knowledgeable about trains and we think before we stop our car on railroad tracks, while we are on our way to get a hoagie or cheese steak or something else fattening, or while we are on the way to the bank to make a car payment on our SUV. Meanwhile, the economist at the bank knows how our buying that SUV will cause the price of gas to rise, and he drives a coop, and the cardiologist is eating a salad, neither of them would think twice before following another car onto railroad tracks only to have the car in front of them stop at the yellow light, and then be boxed in on both sides.
Sorry to hear that it hit close to home.....sometimes accidents DO happen, and while there isn't much the railroad, train crew or the regular folks involved could do, unfortunately, the results are almost a given.
Even as a railroad employee, I have made a mistake that scared the hell out of me, that could happened to really anyone. I was driving back from the Outer Banks of North Carolina, and I was on Route 13 North in Delaware - it was like 2am and I just drove through one of the worst thunderstorms I ever saw in my entire life....I was relieved and thought it was going to be smooth sailing - I was planning on resting at the first Rest Area on the NJTPK, just about an hour away. Im sailing up Route 13, going about 60-65mph, and I see these flashing lights up ahead -
"hmmmmmm I wonder what that is, looks like a cop car or something".....so I slow down a little bit. And then one black hopper rolls in front of me with scotchlite reflectors, while none of the others did. "HOLY $#!T!!!!! ITS A TRAIN!!!!" I had to put on the brakes a little hard, but I still had some room. But it scared the be-jesus out of me........thank god that hopper with the reflectors rolled by. Who knows, i might have driven right into the side of a coal train!
And I know that I have said "how in the heck can anyone drive into the SIDE of a train???" That night, I found out how. And im very glad the FRA is mandating the Scotchlite reflectors on all the cars, i think that is a great idea, and long overdue.