Lil4X

On a news assignment many years ago I rode in the cab of an eastbound freight train from Santa Fe to Amarillo. At dozens of well-marked, gated crossings and hundreds of local crossings marked with only a crossbuck, a wide assortment of vehicles would simply ignore the train bearing down on them at 70mph.

These big trains assembled in Clovis, NM for the easterly transcontinental run were among the nation's largest. It was simply incredible to see the stupidity of drivers who seemed to pull out in front of our Santa Fe train from maybe 20% of the crossings - as though it were a regular intersection and they fully expected us to stop for them.

Needless to say accidents are fairly common. The engineers I interviewed for the piece had all experienced them and it was obvious that they were still affected by them, even years later. It took me a while, shooting from the train not to wince every time someone pulled into the crossing even as little as a hundred yards ahead of us. At our speed we would arrive at that spot in less than three seconds, but I suppose these drivers were not aware of that. Our engineer just shook his head when the danger had passed.

Tips these guys gave me: One - do what the sign says, stop, look, and listen. Two - be aware that often there are multiple tracks at a crossing. Be SURE you check ALL of them. Three - don't depend on lights and crossing gates. If they are not working properly, you can find yourself in front of thousands of tons of speeding iron . . . and there's only one winner in that collision.

MoLexus

I said it once and I'll say it again......"crack is whack" -Whitney Houston