Sue drivers who run gates and collide w/trains?

After the pickup truck event in Abbington, maybe it's time that railroads consider suing the drivers/families of vehicles which deliberately run around gates and collide with trains. People are all too quick to sue the railroads, well what's good for the goose is good for the gander! If nothing else, it would bring the railroads some revenue to repair damage done to equipment by such morons.

I have always felt that way Steam-o. It won't please the RR PR department very much but I think that those who destroy the gates and cost the railroads money and time should be forced to pay.


The same thing with bridge strikes. Truckers aren't generally invited to join Mensa (neither have I for that matter) and many are illiterate (some would say that I am illiterate) which is why there are so many bridge strikes to begin with which is why the individual trucker should pay heavily for the repairs to the bridge, and also for any expenses incurred by the rr such as for sending out a person to inspect the bridge, personnell to "walk" the train over the bridge, lost time due to having to slow down.

Said trucker should not be allowed to operate a motor vehicle again. There is no excuse for hitting a bridge.

The other thing that needs to happen is for automatic jail time for any vehicle driver that is driving a vehicle bigger than your average car and gets hit by a train.

Truckers seem to have an affinity for being on the tracks and getting hit by a train. Those that do should get about 10 - 15 years or so to consider the problem and come up with a reasonable solution. With that kind of sentence mandatory they may decide to avoid grade crossings whenever possible.

10 years for a freight train, 25 years for a passenger train sounds about right.

I remember a story in the news about some idiots who were moving a house, that's right, moving a house out in Washington state, well being truckers they forgot to notify the rr and along comes a passenger train just as they are moving the house across the tracks. Can you say "splinters".

So the house was delivered, a little late, and in "kit" form. With some tweezers and a little bit of glue they should have things back to normal in a few years I would think.

I'd say 50 years for everyone involved is about right in that case.

As for that trucker in Ill who murdered a bunch of people when he moved his truck into the path of an oncoming train and the train derailed. He should have simply been shot on site. No questions asked. No trial. Bang, done.

Is that too strict?

CSXT has been known to do this before. They also sued a woman for taking a turn an driving along the right-of-way, stating that they needed to attempt to re-coop costs incurred since they needed the track dept. to inspect the track at 3am.

There was a bridge strike in Dover today. No damage to the bridge. Trains did go over it slowly and it was inspected of course.

Another truck driver showing his professionalism.

NHN1757:

I like your thinking!!! Right ON!!! Do any of these guys manage to pass a driving test?

The IL incident should have carried at least a 30 year, non-parole jail term. Too bad your solution couldn't have been used, though.

Having been "in the seat" as these yahoos blow through crossings I'm approaching (with flashers going, whistle blowing, bell, ditchlites, you name it--what's next, a flare gun built into the front of the loco??), I start to wonder if the FLASHING red lights are not part of the problem.....here's my theory: In normal driving, what does flashing red mean? It means stop, look, then go. Only at a grade crossing does it mean stop and stay put. The average car driver can be expected to be a clueless idiot about railroad grage crossings, but there's no excuse for a supposedly "professional" truck driver to ignore the crossing warnings. After all, they are professional about all the other aspects of their "craft", such as speed limits, vehicle weight, log books, etc. Why shouldn't they be as on the ball about railroad grade crossing warning signals?

Jail time might be needed for such cases like the ones you are all talking about... HOWEVER I hate to say this, but given are country and the problem of not having enough prisons giving someone 10 to 20 years for running a crossing is not going to fly. People in this country (Believe it or not) are not even serving there full terms because there isn't enough room for everyone.
EX #1: Someone is in jail for possession of Cocaine (in NH) that's a minimum of 10 (might be 15) years in jail. Intent to sell is another 15 to 20 years.

EX #2: Someone is in Jail for colliding with a train at a grade crossing gets 10 years in jail.

So there's one bed... who do you think is going first; the person with the stupidity to play chicken with a train or someone committing a crime far worse than playing chicken with a train?

B&M 1566, the moron in IL killed a dozen people, as a direct result of deliberately driving around lowered crossing gates. That is no different than going into a McDonalds with a loaded AK47 and opening up on the patrons. If you kill someone besides yourself at a grade crossing, then jail time, yes.

If someone blows a crossing and hits a train, mandatory 5 or 10 year D.L. suspension.

Blow a crossing and don't hit a train, then mandatory 1 year suspension.

Don't be too quick to think that they don't. My ex-wife was run off the road some 20 years ago and Massachusetts billed her for the damage to the guard rail.

Railroad legal departments generally have a claims section to handle these matters. Smaller railroads will typically farm out the claims work to one or more regular lawfirms.

H.F.Malone wrote:B&M 1566, the moron in IL killed a dozen people, as a direct result of deliberately driving around lowered crossing gates. That is no different than going into a McDonalds with a loaded AK47 and opening up on the patrons. If you kill someone besides yourself at a grade crossing, then jail time, yes.

If someone blows a crossing and hits a train, mandatory 5 or 10 year D.L. suspension.

Blow a crossing and don't hit a train, then mandatory 1 year suspension.

If deaths are involved well then yes, that’s a different story, if its a chemical spill of some nature then yes but anything other than that, jail is not needed, a large fine and removal of license is sufficient, but for some people on here they believe jail is what they should get. Maybe they should but its never going to happen unless otherwise noted.

"I start to wonder if the FLASHING red lights are not part of the problem.....here's my theory: In normal driving, what does flashing red mean? It means stop, look, then go. Only at a grade crossing does it mean stop and stay put. "

Unfortunately, these are the same morons who run red lights, only traffic there is
a) easier to dodge,
b)more likely to be able to stop,
c)more survivable in a collision.
There ARE EXCEPTIONS to the above, of course! Plenty of people have been killed by morons at red lights, but that's getting off topic.