Live from the Third Rail: Archive

August 2, 2004

Rail Accident Round-Up

The Sad
--82-year old Australian woman falls from train and dies
--Oklahoma woman struck and killed by train while trying to save dog
--Train hits wheelchair-bound Oregon man

The Lucky
--20 freight train cars derail, hit natural gas line. No one injured.

The Stupid
--In TX: Car goes around crossing arms, hit by train
--Houston drivers still don't get it
--In Reno: man falls under train after trying to jump on

The Strange
--Car whose driver was "most likely" already dead crashes into train.

Post Author: cs | 10:58 AM | Link | TrackBacks

Comments

Just an Idea: If youre a rail fan,
dont list rail accidents.
They are not reeal news, rail is way safer than road,
and its just a bad look
cheers
Giordano Bruno
no cars

Posted by: Giordano Bruno at August 3, 2004 1:02 AM

While it is true that rail is far safer than road travel, being interested in trains and transit policy does not mean you have to whitewash the truth. Besides, "no cars" is both impossible and not necissary. Try a little nuance, Giordano.

Posted by: Randolph at August 3, 2004 8:52 AM

A whole hour of the six hour defensive driving course in Texas is devoted to the subject of not driving around crossing arms and videos of the gruesome results of doing so. I believe that one of the 2 hr driver's ed sessions was also devoted to what not to do at a rail crossing.

I still saw people doing it all the time back home. Of course, there are more than a few completely unguarded and signal-only (no arms) crossings. I went out of my way to avoid them. I think they make the drive-arounds more common, as people who have to use the unguardeds decide that they know exactly how long they have to get out of the way of an on-coming train and that the guard arms are over-protective.

Posted by: Amanda at August 5, 2004 3:28 PM