Last edited Tue Feb 24, 2015, 02:30 PM - Edit history (1)

Like gates that came down to block entry into the right of way, or REALLY LOUD BELLS, or several large, bright, flashing red lights. Also, all these things would happen well ahead of time, so that people would have lots of time to react and get out of the way.

Barring those, I don't see what can be done.

should be researched. Obviously the gates would need to be rolled into a position which would clear the street area of the crossing. Commercial properties already use this technology to secure property/parking-lots.

I am NOT familiar with this gate, but MOST Gates are set up that if you are caught between the gates, you can continue for the gate on the other side does NOT block your lane. This is for safety reasons, if someone is between the gates, just get out of the way of the train.

6. Four-Quadrant Gates

Four-quadrant gate systems consist of a series of automatic flashing light signals and gates in which the gates extend across both the approach and the departure side of roadway lanes. Unlike two-quadrant gate systems, four-quadrant gates provide additional visual constraints and inhibit nearly all traffic movements over the crossing after the gates have been lowered.

At this time, only a small number of four-quadrant gate systems have been installed in the United States, and they incorporate different types of designs to prevent vehicles from being trapped between the gates. In some installations, the exit gates are delayed to allow roadway vehicles to clear before the crossing is secured; other systems include vehicle presence detection to hold the exit gates up while vehicles are within the crossing zone.

do look like something out of the 50's.

Ridiculous that we can't have modern trains with 21st century crossings.

And can stop a speeding train.

It is sad that so many pay for the stupidity of one or a few.

Superman but they can indeed stop a train, after it hits them,somewhere down the track,sometimes as much as a mile it will stop...

posts and thanked them for those.

Driving in Long Island is challenging.


End of the line out east at Montauk Point. Trains lay over for the weekend with observation cars Setauket on the Cannonball and Jamaica on the Weekender.




It wasn't so bad back in the 70s when I drove to Montauk Point as often as possible.

I don't know where that picture is, but it isn't on the East end...there's s third rail visible, electrification ends well before the South Fork.

My sister lives a couple of blocks from an active freight rail line. When I was visiting last summer I saw more than one hot shot try to dodge around the gates while they were coming down, and once when they were completely down. The commuter line near me averages a fatality a month (mostly suicides). I was once on an Amtrak train that hit a truck deliberately parked on the tracks (the occupants were off in a nearby woods drinking beer at the time). I have yet to see an active railroad crossing in the US that is not equipped with bells and flashing lights that start well before the train is at the crossing, or for that matter that doesn't have an way out if one is on the tracks once the bells and lights start.

So let's stop blaming the trains: they just go up and down their appointed tracks.

Last edited Tue Feb 24, 2015, 12:48 PM - Edit history (1)

They were designed to break and the fallout from doing that is assuredly less than not doing so.

I've taken that train. Up until last week I was always on the 100 train that comes before it. I know the conductor on that route. I hope he's ok, he's a really nice guy but as conductor he is constantly walking the train so a hit like that would be very bad for him.

No other details on that, just a comment when I first turned to CNN. Maybe he just got out and ran for his life?

I just don't get stopping on the tracks EVER. The small town I grew up in had phosphate trains running through it day and night constantly, with tracks criss-crossing the town. Everyone who lived there knew without being told that you never, EVER stop on the track because there would be another train by soon. It was so ingrained in me that stopping on decommission tracks converted to recreational trails makes me nervous.

Yeah, I know, you have to go with you have. Still, did the train derail all by itself, or was there some other thing that happened first? Like, was there a tractor-trailer blocking the right of way?

Last edited Tue Feb 24, 2015, 01:10 PM - Edit history (3)

From the Federal Highway Administration Railroad-Highway Grade Crossing Handbook - Revised Second Edition August 2007

The railroad system is using an out dated rule for the action to stop a train.

Two braking systems are used one is air brakes and the other is dynamics.

However, at the discretion of the engineer to make a decision using the old style “half the distance” rule is an antiquated system. The half the distance rule needs to reformed.

Or conductor to pull the emergency air many times is not good enough.

I would write more about the solution, however for me it is time to be cautious because of my own OSHA safety complaint in progress.

However what is public information is my complaint towards a Director in the Chicago Service Group filed as public record.

Moreover, this abuse scales to upper management in the old Harriman tradition of retribution and retaliation.

This Chicago Service Group intentionally using loyalty methods, and retribution, the local Director used personalized pressure to avoid reporting an injury accurately.

This action prevents to preserve good data base integrity for health services throughout Health Care industry especially for determinations in diagnosis, even for data base connected to Medicare that is common medical system.

It is my intention to expose the Union Pacific Railroad for this abuse which likely has been a predator management style in safety practices for decades resulting in poor training and safety reporting.

safe at crossings because they can go so far off the tracks.

I'm a Quality professional. I had to take a certification course on inspections things like weld repairs. I was told there are only two places in the US that weld repair train boxcars. One does a good job, the other...

The moral of the story - if at a crossing, stay far back if you can.

as punishment? Take that you naughty trucks!

Hopefully they meant: "Two trucks caught fire."

around the same area . Our infrastructure is crumbling while we fear boogie men .

Hat tip, Trainorders: Woman hit by Caltrain today in Palo Alto, CA

Train critically injures woman {in} Palo Alto

Updated: Wed, Feb 25, 2015, 11:38 am
Uploaded: Tue, Feb 24, 2015, 11:58 am

Female pedestrian struck by train at University Avenue station

UPDATE: As of late Tuesday night the woman's condition improved, but she remained in critical but stable condition, according to Caltrain spokesperson Jayme Ackemann.

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A woman pedestrian struck by a northbound train at the Palo Alto Caltrain station on University Avenue Tuesday morning is still alive and has been taken to Stanford Hospital for treatment, according to Caltrain officials.

Northbound Caltrain #143, which left San Jose at 11:10 a.m., struck the adult female at 11:45 a.m. The train was headed to San Francisco. ... The woman, a Palo Alto resident, was conscious and breathing, Caltrain spokesperson Jayme Ackemann said.

The train, which had about 200 people on board, was stopped at the scene and caused delays through the area. ... Train service was shut down in both directions. One track was reopened at 12:20 p.m., and full service resumed at 12:45 p.m., Caltrain officials said.

— Palo Alto Weekly staff/Bay City News

Tuesday's may have been a suicide attempt: you have to go out of your way to get hit by a train at University Avenue: the street and sidewalk both go under the tracks, no where near the trains. The first fatality the previous day was someone who either didn't see or ignored the "Do Not Stop on Tracks" sign and got blocked in; the second was a homeless person wandering in a train tunnel.

Hat tip, Trainorders: NTSB releases preliminary Metrolink crash info.

Metrolink train crash: NTSB releases preliminary findings (update)

KPCC staff February 26, 09:20 PM

National Transportation Safety Board investigators released preliminary findings of Tuesday's crash between a Metrolink commuter train and a pickup truck in Oxnard. The Ventura County District Attorney said no charges will be filed against the pickup truck driver "at this time" as the investigation is ongoing. The driver's lawyer criticizes police for arresting his client.

A camera aboard a Metrolink train that collided with a pickup truck in Oxnard on Tuesday shows the truck "straddling" the tracks with its headlights and emergency flashers turned on, a National Transportation Safety board official said.

Robert Sumwalt of the NTSB told a news briefing in Oxnard on Thursday that at the time of the impact the train was being operated by a 31-year-old student engineer under the supervision of a veteran Metrolink engineer. ... As the train approached the truck, Sumwalt said, the passenger-side wheels of the Ford F-450 were inside the rails and the driver-side wheels were outside. The vehicle was facing the oncoming train, but at a slight angle, he said.

Sumwalt laid out various elements of the investigation that investigators have so far collected:

•The train's horn sounded 12 seconds before impact
•The throttle position of the train was moved to idle 11 secs prior to impact
•The train's emergency brakes were applied 8 seconds before impact
•At the time the emergency brakes were applied, the train was traveling 64 mph, and 56 mph at the time of impact

Late, but important:

Train technology prevented tragedy in Southern California, officials say

By Kyung Lah, Steve Almasy and Ashley Fantz, CNN
Updated 3:52 AM ET, Wed February 25, 2015

Oxnard, California (CNN)—If Tuesday's fiery wreck involving a passenger train and a pickup in Southern California had occurred five years ago, more people likely would have been injured, and some might have died, officials with the commuter service said.

Some of the Metrolink cars in the crash were equipped with collision energy management technology -- implemented after a 2008 Chatsworth, California, crash between a freight train and a Metrolink commuter train that left 25 people dead.

No one died in this wreck, which happened before sunrise when the driver of a produce truck allegedly mistook the train tracks for the road and tried to turn onto them. But at least 30 people were injured, including four in critical condition.

The train cars are relatively new, and the safety features are much better at absorbing the impact of a crash than older trains. ... "We can safely say that the technology worked," Metrolink spokesman Jeff Lustgarten told reporters. "It minimized the impact of what (could have been) a very serious collision. It would have been much worse without it."