Are people always stupid near trains?

Pi1otguy

Pi1otguy

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Fox McCloud
Before today I Never understood train vs people or train vs car accidents. Logically, it requires the victim to be within a well defined narrow path at the exact moment the train comes. Except for blind corners see and avoid should be simple but somehow it must be hard.

At my station the pax have to cross the track but there are lights & bells. Coming off the train I see a slow moving frieght train coming but instead of waiting I see a mass of people running in front of it so of course the train stops 30 ft short. Now it starts to creep along when 2 ppl walk onto the track facing away from the train and just stand there talking while the lights & bells go off. The horn blows but they don't even look. It wasn't until I shouted "Hey! There's a train behind you!" with the train stopped 10 ft away that they moved.

I know we have a few train guys here. Is this what you normal deal with? And since when did trains gain the ability to stop so easily? I thought it took hundreds of feet even at slow speds.
 
While I am not a train guy, where I live and am from has always has commuter trains and freight trains and of course the occasional person/vehicle vs. train. While I do not commute to NYC (the metro area nearest me) I would guess the stupidity comes from complacency on the part of the commuters. One rule does stand to be broken: in a person or vehicle vs. train incident, the train always wins.
 
Pi1otguy said:
Now it starts to creep along when 2 ppl walk onto the track facing away from the train and just stand there talking while the lights & bells go off. The horn blows but they don't even look. It wasn't until I shouted "Hey! There's a train behind you!" with the train stopped 10 ft away that they moved.
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Taxiing onto the ramp at an uncontrolled airport there were a bunch of workers around. One of them was sitting on a bucket next to the taxiway which leads to the ramp talking on a cell phone. He had his back to the airplane which has fairly long wings. I stopped short of where he was sitting because it looked like we would knock him off his bucket with a wingtip if we continued. He looked up at the cockpit as if he was annoyed that we were stopping there and interrupting his cell phone call. My flying buddy pointed behind him at the wing, which he hadn't noticed and he finally, reluctantly, moved out of the way. I don't see how he could have heard anything on his cell phone anyway since the airplane is deafening from the outside with the engines running.

Wouldn't you notice if this came up behind you?

a345614812792efce52be349b9b28161ca9bc346
 
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You can't fix stupid. Some Darwin awards are earned
 
Everskyward said:
Taxiing onto the ramp at an uncontrolled airport there were a bunch of workers around. One of them was sitting on a bucket next to the taxiway which let to the ramp talking on a cell phone. He had his back to the airplane which has fairly long wings. I stopped short of where he was sitting because it looked like we would knock him off his bucket with a wingtip if we continued. He looked up at the cockpit as if he was annoyed that we were stopping there and interrupting his cell phone call. My flying buddy pointed behind him at the wing, which he hadn't noticed and he finally, reluctantly, moved out of the way. I don't see how he could have heard anything on his cell phone anyway since the airplane is deafening from the outside with the engines running.

Wouldn't you notice if this came up behind you?

a345614812792efce52be349b9b28161ca9bc346
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I've often considered carrying a bear horn in the cockpit, easily reached out the side window.

I just happen to have one in the hangar.....
 
What's a bear horn? Is that like an air horn?
 
It has always been thus with people taking on cell phones or talking, period. HEY YOU! BARRELLING DOWN ON ME! SHUT! UP! I'M ON THE PHONE!!!!

I once witnessed a simular thing at the commuter train station. There was a post office on the other side. Guy waiting for the train is talking to his buddy in a postal uniform. Train is coming. They say "See ya" and old Postman walks in front of the train only clearing it by 7 feet or so. I could see the trainman looking down at the top of guy's head and screaming.

As we got onto the train I tell passenger buddy that his friend was very,very nearly was blotted out. "Oh yeah?" Yeah.

You know the saying "Can't walk and chew gum at the same time?" We surrounded by those. We just need to hope they don't try to become pilots.
 
mikea said:
You know the saying "Can't walk and chew gum at the same time?" We surrounded by those. We just need to hope they don't try to become pilots.
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No wonder there's so few pilots. If we exclude the druggies, drunks, poor, and the stupid than who's left?
 
But they're not always hooked up during switching and other low-speed activities, since it's not practical to do so. In that case, the cars are rolling free and the only brakes are the air brakes on the engine and the dynamic brakes on the electric motors that drive the wheels (by reversing the electrical current through the circuit.) During my 4 summers as a brakeman on the Santa Fe, we only big-holed a freight train once due to a collision, took almost a mile to stop from 70 mph. I had to walk from the engine back to the car we hit (barely) to check on the damage to the '56 Ford hard-top that didn't quite stop in time. Nobody hurt and minimal damage, but the inside of the car had a strange outhouse odor.

Piloto said:
Trains have pneumatic brakes on every car that activates simultaneously since the late 1800s. More info at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Railway_air_brake

José
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Our Motor home has 2 air horns that are about 3 feet long and operate on 150 PSI air pressure, they are loud.

To get off Whidbey Island we must cross deception Pass Bridge, it is a narrow road way, so our mirrors hang out over the walkway each side of the road way.

It's become a game of seeing how high the people on the bridge will jump when we hit the horns to make them aware of the mirrors coming at them head high.

I've gotten the 1 finger salute more than once.
 
Motorhomes, ha! Infookingvisible sometimes. I had a guy pull out right in front of me in a parking lot. My 3 loud horns are in the grill right about where the dinky little car driver window was and the window was down. There's only one thing you can do in a situation like that - hold the horn down until the nutjob gets out of the way....I was wondering if I was going to need the generator to keep the battery charged long enough for him to notice I nearly smooshed him into the pavement like a bug.

I watched a guy walk across the street completely unaware of his surroundings yakking on the cellphone. Then he tripped over the curb. Then turned to follow the walkway at the strip mall. He walked straight into a post. It wasn't one of those little dinky angle iron no parking posts or one of the 2 inch round posts. It was a big white concrete pillar TWO FEET across. He first looked confused on where the post came from then got PO'd to no end because it hit him.

A train? At least it has the ability to NOT be there when the idget walks across the tracks.

Train vs nearly anything, the train is going to win and not even notice it won. Get off the tracks or get what you deserve.
 
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Train crews live in fear of hitting a trailer full of gravel, knowin the most of the load will come through the windshield and into the cab of the locomotive. Curtains.

fgcason said:
I watched a guy walk across the street completely unaware of his surroundings yakking on the cellphone. Then he tripped over the curb. Then turned to follow the walkway at the strip mall. He walked straight into a post. It wasn't one of those little dinky angle iron no parking posts or one of the 2 inch round posts. It was a big white concrete pillar TWO FEET across. He first looked confused on where the post came from then got PO'd to no end because it hit him.

A train? At least it has the ability to NOT be there when the idget walks across the tracks.

Train vs nearly anything, the train is going to win and not even notice it won. Get off the tracks or get what you deserve.
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And this is why many politicians & special interest groups want to ban cellphones while driving. Not that they'd ban talking and walking, though. :rolleyes:
 
The problem is every time there is an accident, the government passes a law or rule that adds some technology to keep natural selection at bay. The latest is the US DOT requiring new automobiles be equipped with backup cameras because of the number of people killed or injured in accidents with automobiles.
Excuse me! I thought that was why we have MANDATED backup lights. I suspect backup alarms on automobiles will be next.
Yeah. some people ARE that stupid. Poor Darwin.
 
wsuffa said:
And this is why many politicians & special interest groups want to ban cellphones while driving. Not that they'd ban talking and walking, though. :rolleyes:
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That's not the reason.

One of the actual reasons they want to ban cellphones while driving is because they don't understand system safety and are unable or unwilling to look at root causes.
 
I take it that none of you live in an area full of trains and switch yards.

It doesn't take long to learn to really hate trains and the arrogant way that they are operated.

And, it doesn't take long to figure out that if you don't get across in front of the train, you could be in for a 30 - 60 minute wait. And, it's not unusual for a gate to be down all day with no trains around.

Even if it's just a single engine and no cars, you don't assume that there won't be a wait because there is a chance that the engine will stop in the in intersection to wait while someone does something somewhere else.

You get complacent.

Big surprise.
 
I tried to find an old commercial from the early 80's that I saw. Apparently someone in the railway industry got tired of obliterating people so they put together a sequence of crashes.
Pedestrian vs bicycle. Then bicycle vs motorcycle. motorcycle vs car. car vs van. van vs big work truck. big work truck vs semi-truck. semi-truck vs freight train.
Anyone who couldn't figure that out deserved to have a long talk with Mr Darwin.
 
silver-eagle said:
The problem is every time there is an accident, the government passes a law or rule that adds some technology to keep natural selection at bay. The latest is the US DOT requiring new automobiles be equipped with backup cameras because of the number of people killed or injured in accidents with automobiles.
Excuse me! I thought that was why we have MANDATED backup lights. I suspect backup alarms on automobiles will be next.
Yeah. some people ARE that stupid. Poor Darwin.
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John,

Not trying to pick a fight but I agree with the requirement for backup cameras. If you do a little research on the topic you will find that the primary justification is the number of toddlers and very young children that are killed because of being behind a vehicle leaving their driveway. These little humans probably don't respond to backup lights coming on and perhaps wouldn't respond to backup alarms, either. I can't imagine how difficult it would be to live knowing that you had backed up over a small child and killed them, even more so if your child.

I agree that Darwin was probably an optimist. I've seen my share of folks that survived to adulthood and later against incredible odds. :rolleyes:
 
Gmaper said:
John,

Not trying to pick a fight but I agree with the requirement for backup cameras. If you do a little research on the topic you will find that the primary justification is the number of toddlers and very young children that are killed because of being behind a vehicle leaving their driveway. These little humans probably don't respond to backup lights coming on and perhaps wouldn't respond to backup alarms, either. I can't imagine how difficult it would be to live knowing that you had backed up over a small child and killed them, even more so if your child.

I agree that Darwin was probably an optimist. I've seen my share of folks that survived to adulthood and later against incredible odds. :rolleyes:
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Are backup cameras the only means of preventing that kind of accident?

Are backup cameras the most effectiveness means?
 
Backup camera and "parking assist" (read - sonar) on my wife's Jeep Commander. Only help if you pay attention to them. I've had to re-install one of the sonar sensors more than once due to its being knocked out of the bumper by something she backed into.

I'm firmly convinced that civilization is resulting in the dumbing down of the human race. People who in the past would not have survived now survive, and breed.
 
Gmaper said:
John,

Not trying to pick a fight but I agree with the requirement for backup cameras. If you do a little research on the topic you will find that the primary justification is the number of toddlers and very young children that are killed because of being behind a vehicle leaving their driveway. These little humans probably don't respond to backup lights coming on and perhaps wouldn't respond to backup alarms, either. I can't imagine how difficult it would be to live knowing that you had backed up over a small child and killed them, even more so if your child.

I agree that Darwin was probably an optimist. I've seen my share of folks that survived to adulthood and later against incredible odds. :rolleyes:
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From a purely Darwinian view it's still survival of the fittest as it is usually a parent backing over their offspring and as such removing the stupid genes that they passed on to the child.

Now a parent that chooses to have a camera to avoid such an accident is the opposite...
 
Bob Noel said:
Are backup cameras the only means of preventing that kind of accident?
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No, but few people walk around their car before backing out.

Are backup cameras the most effectiveness means?
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Probably. Kids can be too short to see in the rearview mirror. I've seen backup cams prevent several people from hitting inanimate objects before. What it comes down to is whether or not it's worth the cost & hassle per life saved.

Personally I'd like the option of a car with fewer airbags, etc for a lower price, but that's not practical in our safety obsessed climate.
 
Pi1otguy said:
I know we have a few train guys here. Is this what you normal deal with? And since when did trains gain the ability to stop so easily? I thought it took hundreds of feet even at slow speds.
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I worked for Sperry Rail Service just out of high school and watched a guy come to a stop at a double line crossing (I was in the siding approaching at 13 mph from one side, Amtrack on the main line doing 80 from the other, he's full lights bell and whistle) in an old late 60s Ford XL with 3 buddies, floor it around the guard arms and get splattered all over the front of my car.:vomit: Had to ask the fire guys to hose it off. What were they thinking? How long does Amtrack take to pass? I'll clear the intersection at the same time. Why did he stop to begin with? Had he just kept it smoking he would have been fine. We were near Seymore IN so it wasn't like he didn't see it all coming for miles.:dunno:
 
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Pi1otguy said:
Personally I'd like the option of a car with fewer airbags, etc for a lower price, but that's not practical in our safety obsessed climate.
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I agree with this. Not that people should be debilitated from a car wreck, but we need to remember that while 60mph seems slow, it's a LOT of energy....especially when a human dies from falling 40 feet, which is was less energy. A little soreness, broken arm or something to help us remember wouldn't be the end of the world. Yes, I'm prepared to get flamed for this viewpoint.

Backup cameras....hadn't thought about the kid point of view, but, IMHO it's just another dumbing feature. No, I do not wish for children to be run over. My problem lies with the lack of vehicle control. Use the mirrors, it's why the DOT required three since '71 or so. Solve the problem of backing over something when leaving by backing into your parking space. I assume the space was scoped out before throwing the car in reverse, anyway. Like the new cars that parallel park themselves. Or, Nissan is touting an upcoming feature: motion sensors/ cameras, four of them, which determine if you really, seriously meant to accelerate that quickly in traffic. This is about to get rant-y, so I'll go no further with it. :rolleyes:

Never understood the getting hit by a train thing, either. At least not the slow-moving freight I'm used to. Kyle
 
fgcason said:
[Snip]

Train vs nearly anything, the train is going to win and not even notice it won. Get off the tracks or get what you deserve.
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So there I was, in 1963; theater/broadcasting student on my free time. En route to a figure skating lesson in Newton Upper Falls, MA, my custom skate case dangled from my right hand while my unicycle plodded along the busy street's sidewalk area. That General Motors plant had a lot of traffic via the railroad cars which crossed the street.

Merrily going about my way, having exited the MBTA(mass transit trolley) most recent station, I heard the tires screech, the collision sound and two more collisions. I had seen the train with many cars crossing the street. Why didn't the first vehicle which drove into the moving train and had its front end rather shattered as each crossing RR car gave it another taste of destruction. And the two rear-enders which followed!

When I went to the ice studio for my lesson a few days later the newspaper clipping on the cork board was Unicyclist Cause of Three Car/Train Collision. Sheesh! Why don't people pay attention and look where they're going, not gawk at the sidelines?

HR
 
Bob Noel said:
Are backup cameras the most effectiveness means?
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No.
How about something that is not a lazy self absorbed selfish person sitting in the driver seat? The entire universe is not obligated to get out of their way.

Look at what is behind you THEN move. It really is that simple.

I'm firmly convinced that civilization is resulting in the dumbing down of the human race.
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Yea. That.
 
Conan said:
I agree with this. Not that people should be debilitated from a car wreck, but we need to remember that while 60mph seems slow, it's a LOT of energy....especially when a human dies from falling 40 feet, which is was less energy.
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Which goes to show it's not energy that kills you, it's acceleration; or deceleration in this instance.
 
Conan said:
Never understood the getting hit by a train thing, either. At least not the slow-moving freight I'm used to. Kyle
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You get used to the slow moving freight, then every once in a while a fast train is comes through...
 
fgcason said:
No.
How about something that is not a lazy self absorbed selfish person sitting in the driver seat? The entire universe is not obligated to get out of their way.

Look at what is behind you THEN move. It really is that simple.
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The point is that most SUVs and some cars have a huge blindspot for anything under 3' and under a foot or 2 from the bumper. I chose to walk a circle around my car before I get in, knowing that anything short & directly behind me is invisible.
 
yeah, we all know little kids never move quickly, especially after a driver is seated and buckled in. Get a grip.

fgcason said:
No.
How about something that is not a lazy self absorbed selfish person sitting in the driver seat? The entire universe is not obligated to get out of their way.

Look at what is behind you THEN move. It really is that simple.



Yea. That.
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