I’ve just seen this in the news today. It’s made me ponder American rail roads. Why does there always seem to be so many accidents? YouTube is awash with trains hitting lorries, I don’t understand the complexity of an american truck driver waiting until a crossing is clear https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-61958813
The crash happened in the middle of nowhere Missouri, the crossing was most likely nothing more that a simple cross buck (Which are very common on rural roads in North America.) The driver of the truck who died in the accident could of either.... A. Attempted to cross the track before the train, and paid the price. B. Had a mechanical fault on the crossing, and could not get out of the vehicles or call the emergency number on the crossing in time. Doesn't matter how many signals or flashing lights you put though, there are still idiot drivers who are too impatient to wait for a train and run crossings, though with the longer trains that railroads are now running, and the lack of crews due to employees quitting, there are times where trains end up blocking railroad crossings for hours. And become a nuance to local communities. Everything is a joke right now.....
I wonder whether larger more visible gates would help mitigate this, just seems like they have two match sticks and a torch currently.
Nope, people with still try and find ways around the crossing. Unless you somehow physically block every single railroad crossing in the US with a gate, this is gonna keep happening.
Reports so far are that it was a gateless crossing with only a stop sign. Haven't seen anything saying whether the truck was stopped on the tracks or moving, but it's probably too early to know that. Sadly, three fatalities so far--the truck driver and two people on the train.
Youtube is full of these level crossing idiots vs. train hits. Mostly without derailing. Sadly not in this case. @chieflongshin Speaking of which: Your signature gif is disturbing from day one on. Duuuhhhhh .....
In the UK a similar crossing would be gated and the road user would need to phone the signaller for permission to cross. Or would have been replaced with a bridge.
The state of Missouri alone is about 125% the size of England and not much smaller than the UK as a whole and has probably many thousands of grade crossings. The cost of gating and signalling them, let alone bridging them, most of which might see one or two trains a day, would be prohibitive. Even the suburban community I live in has some unguarded crossings and many miles of unfenced trackage, even though you see fast and frequent Amtrak and Metra trains You have to be very cautious when driving in the US, especially in rural areas. Actually, I see many unguarded crossings on UK routes, too, like ECW, mostly for livestock I guess.
Although I daresay the railroads' idea of prohibitive cost might be slightly different from the residents'.
The railroads barely care about their employees and customers atm, a handful of residents won't persuade them.
Here is a report on the Amtrak accident itself using the NBC New York Website. Train Speed at the accident site was 87 mph 140 kmh. I wonder in Europe are these types of crossings allowed or not? If not then the United States should copy a UK Remote Controlled Railway Crossing that way this accident is prevented from Happing again.
