Warning fellow drivers...STAY OFF THE TRAIN TRACKS! Even if one happens to get trapped on the tracks due to traffic, when the crossing arms start coming down, start ramming vehicles in front or behind you to get the hell out of that predicament. Of course, one should avoid even getting in this situation, but one could fall victim at no fault of one's own. In the case of the story below, it sounds like the 19-year-old driver tried to squeeze in after seeing the arms coming down. She is now in critical condition and her 5-year old passenger is dead.

https://www.ktvu.com/news/child-dead...cars-in-oakley

I bring this to CL's attention because I lost a coworker in a similar incident in Redwood City, CA. He was months short of retirement, and a really intelligent and nice person. He got stuck on the tracks when a fire truck suddenly blocked an intersection a block before the tracks. He had cars in front of him and behind him when the arms came down. By the time he got his seat belt off and tried to exit his vehicle, he was hit and killed.

Be careful out there!

 

According to the article, it was a 12-year-old boy, not a 5-year-old.

 

I looked up the crossing on Google Maps....here it is. It can be twirled for a 360-view.

It is not congested in this photo, but, being part of the vast San Francisco suburbs, traffic-congestion could have indeed been an issue, like the article speculates. There is generally good visibility down the tracks, so it is not likely that a train could appear right out of nowhere.

 

Extremely common. This happens nearly every week throughout the U.S. 99.9% of the cause is a car stopped on the tracks or someone tried going around activated crossing gates.
One thing that would help, is how the media reports these. The trains are not the objects hitting cars. It is the cars hitting trains. If it was reported correctly, the sad headlines would get the public's attention in a way that makes people think twice about the hazards of stopping on rail crossings or going around them.

 

that doesnt make it any less horrible or tragic

 

Wow! Things must be reported way differently in CA than IL. I've never been misled into thinking that the train steered into the vehicle. They even have special news reports on the dangers of going around crossing gates. Maybe that's because we had a school bus that was hit a couple decades ago, due to the driver stopping on the tracks. Several children were killed.

 

I'm in IL too and agree that the coverage of train crossing accidents is factual and to the point. There are always reminders of how long it takes to slow and stop a train as well as the difficulty in judging the speed of an oncoming train. These days there is usually video of vehicles going around gates or stopping on the tracks, especially on the commuter lines.

 

Holy smokes! How awful. Was the driver charged criminally? Even when I was a kid, standard operating procedure was for a bus to come to full stop, door open, when approaching a RR Xing. I saw it this morning on my way to work.

 

I grew up in Palatine, close enough to that Fox River Grove one. I remember they made changes to so many of the train intersections and where gates come down starting then.

 

Totally agree with Fizzboy. Probably 99% or more of the cases of collisions between trains and vehicles are the fault of the vehicle's driver, not the train's engineer. Even with RR crossings that are not well-marked or lit, common sense alone tells you to stay off the tracks. If stopped-traffic is too heavy to clear the tracks, then simply stop short of them.

Having said that, though, my condolences to the family of the 12-year-old who was killed, and I hope the 19-year-old girl survives. Almost all teens make errors behind the wheel, but the main thing is that they learn from them.

 

Yes, and this is my reason for posting. We the motoring public need to be reminded continually about the dangerous situations we can find ourselves in, and how to avoid them, or react to them. When my coworker was hit and killed by the train, messages poured into the local paper's message boards calling him an idiot for being in that situation. But knowing him personally, I knew that wasn't the case. I think any of us can get caught distracted, or simply by a matter of circumstance, in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Warn your kids and loved ones what to do if they are on train tracks when the crossing arms come down...get the hell out, by any and all means necessary!

 

How is it possible to get hit by a freight and it is NOT the drivers fault? (considering the arms, and lights are working correctly)

Is this not common sense?

 

It is common sense, but no one thinks the train will come before the traffic clears out to pull up one car length. I've never had a close call, but I've definitely had occasions when I didn't realize that the traffic on the other side of the tracks was stopped dead, and misjudged how far I could pull up. @Wilson2000 said that his friend would know better, so we should believe him that - in that instance at least - it was not merely a "lack of common sense" issue. Which means that it can happen to other people who do not lack common sense.

 

I guess that people must mis judge it as you stated. . However there is no excuse, other than poor driving behavior and poor decisions. The only explanation acceptable, is that if there’s a mechanical error in the car that stopped on a railway track.

 

Yes, thank you Tex, exactly my point. My coworker was very intelligent, working as a high-level, haz-mat, compliance manager. He could not have predicted a fire truck would abruptly block the intersection ahead and cause the cars in front and behind him to stop suddenly, leaving him stranded on the tracks just as the warning lights came on and the traffic control arms came down. Perhaps he panicked and wasn't thinking straight when he did not ram his way out of the situation. In hindsight, he should have. The point is, any of us could be subjected to the same circumstances and may not react any better. But understanding how this happened, might help us from getting into the same predicament, or if we do, how to get out of it alive.