Train slams into car.

[Saitek]

How did anyone survive this?  :o One man died, the other two are at my local hospital in Inverness and here at Aberdeen.
This accident is very close to my home.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/hig ... 323367.stm

As the video clip says - why can't barriers come down with the lights? This happens to often in the UK.

[Mushroom_Farmer]

Where I live there are many RR crossings without lights or barriers. The people with common sense and survival instinct don't rely on such mechanical gadgets which are prone to malfunctions. They instead stop, or at least slow down to see if a train is coming. The others just go splat because a train will win every time.

An average bulk RR car has a gross combined weight of about 100,000 pounds, or 50 tons. The locomotives are much, heavier.

[Woodlouse2002]

I suspect these kids have in this case been victims of their own stupidity. I'd wager a fair amount that they were trying to beat the train across.

[Saitek]

But as the article said, further up the line (by about 2 miles) another crash happened only last month. Thankfully no-one was hurt.

[Woodlouse2002]

But as the article said, further up the line (by about 2 miles) another crash happened only last month. Thankfully no-one was hurt.

Probably the same thing again. Seriously, no in a car is ever accidentally hit by a train. If the lights are flashing then you stop and wait for the train to pass. If you cross the tracks when the lights are flashing (which they will be when a train is approaching) then you only have yourself to blame when a train creams you.

The other time people in cars get hit by trains is when it's suicide.

[eno]

But as the article said, further up the line (by about 2 miles) another crash happened only last month. Thankfully no-one was hurt.

Probably the same thing again. Seriously, no in a car is ever accidentally hit by a train. If the lights are flashing then you stop and wait for the train to pass. If you cross the tracks when the lights are flashing (which they will be when a train is approaching) then you only have yourself to blame when a train creams you.

The other time people in cars get hit by trains is when it's suicide.

As seems to be the trend round here ........... +1

[expat]

This is a subject on Top Gear this week. They use a Renault Espace to demonstrate what happens to a average family car when it takes on a train.

Matt

[Sir_Crashalot]

As a railroadworker I've seen these things many times. It doesn't matter if a barrier comes down, stupidity tells drivers to drive through the barriers. You don't want to know how many times we replaced complete barriers because they were destroyed by ongoing cars. Mind you that the barriers here in Holland only reach until the middle of the road and are made of wood or aluminium (new model).

Crash

PS be careful along railroadtrracks or railroadcrossing. It gives a bloody mess when you are hit. You won't notice it anymore but the people who have to take away your remains want a pleasant day at work too.

[murjax]

What ever happened to looking both ways before you cross?

[fighter25]

Scary How did they live from that? [smiley=shocked.gif] [smiley=shocked.gif]

[beaky]

It's astounding... if you were to ask any motorist if they'd rather die than be, say, five minutes late for a given destination,  they'd say "heck no!"... yet, this is how most people drive.

They'd rather die- or kill- than be late... or even to line up second at a red light. And it's not really a matter of being late, I suppose... it's the thought of not "winning" or something. It's baffling.

Sometimes I think homo sapiens is just not sufficiently evolved, on the average, to operate a motor vehicle safely.

[Katahu]

I hate it when those idiots try to pull that dare-devil stunt of "who can beat the train". Come one now. Everyone knows that a train will always win, even a fully-loaded 18-wheel semi truck will lose against it.

[rootbeer]

In my misspent youth, I once shot across the tracks in front of a train. It was about 40 yards away and moving at maybe 30 mph as it came into a semi-residential area out in the country. Let me tell you, it looked like the Queen Mary at full steam or a C-5A at near Vr as it came toward me. It literally filled the view out the passenger window. After I crossed and took a look in the rearview mirror to see it go behind where I had just been, I realized how stupid I had been. I never did that again...

[Chris_F]

Proof that cars have become too safe.  I blame all manner of unsafe driving behavior on today's roads on crumple zones, airbags, and ABS.  If cars were dangerous people wouldn't drive like idiots.  I'd bet most people who try to beat a train truely believe that absolutely nothing bad can happen to them in their protected metal cacoon.  Unfortunately the laws of physics care not about such cares and the result is as Newton would predict.  A couple hundred (or thousand) tons of steel beats the silly little tin cage every time.

[expat]

Proof that cars have become too safe.  I blame all manner of unsafe driving behavior on today's roads on crumple zones, airbags, and ABS.  If cars were dangerous people wouldn't drive like idiots.  I'd bet most people who try to beat a train truely believe that absolutely nothing bad can happen to them in their protected metal cacoon.  Unfortunately the laws of physics care not about such cares and the result is as Newton would predict.  A couple hundred (or thousand) tons of steel beats the silly little tin cage every time.

You could take out all the crumple zones, airbags and ABS and people would still drive in the same way..............because it always happens to some other person and not them.

Matt