From: 31ochs@gw.wmich.edu
Newsgroups: rec.railroad
Subject: Re: Playing Chicken!!!
Date: 14 Apr 92 22:05:36 EST
Distribution: na
Organization: Western Michigan University

eIn article <1992Apr13.194836.4861@cbnewsd.cb.att.com>, clb@cbnewsd.cb.att.com (carl.l.blesch) writes:
> In article <1992Apr11.151446.3791@gw.wmich.edu>, 31ochs@gw.wmich.edu writes:
>> In article <9339@ncrwat.Waterloo.NCR.COM>, rtp@53iss6.Waterloo.NCR.COM (Richard T. Pierce) writes:
>> > 
>> > When will people learn that playing chicken in a 2500 pound car against
>> > a several hundred thousand pound engine is always a losing proposition for
>> > the car...
>> > 
> 
> I've heard two theories about why car-drivers inadvertantly or
> not-so-inadvertantly tangle with trains. One is that since passenger
> trains are not part of the mainstream culture anymore, the public
> in general doesn't have an appreciation for railroads or an internalized
> concept of the power, mass, momentum, (pick whatever the appropriate
> physics 101 term is) that trains have - both in terms of stopping
> distance and crushing potential. Secondly, there is no legal connotation
> to the flashing grade-crossing lights (I'm sure the lawbooks say it's
> illegal to go around a flashing signal, but people don't think of that).
> If it were a standard traffic signal, maybe people would think twice,
> having the gut feeling that they could be ticketed for going around it.

Well, a cop here in Michigan told me once that he gave a ticket to a guy
who ran around the gates in front of an oncoming train, the guy fought
it and won, the judge saying that it is not illegal to pass around the gates
provided there is ample time to safely make it...
Now I suppose if a person thinks he has a safe enough distance 
to make it and was stupid enough to go, and gets hit, that's his own
stupid fault, except for the engineer and train crew who has to deal
with hitting him.

> 
> Again, these are just theories I've heard. I'm not sure how much stock
> I put in them personally, but they're worth considering.
>> 
>> I've always been kind of afraid that someone might run around the gates when 
>> I'm sitting near the tracks watching a 70 MPH frieght roll toward me.
>> It a car ever got hit, I guess all you could do would put your head between
>> your legs and kiss your *** goodbye.
> 
> Something along these lines happened in Chicago last year. A car was
> waiting at a grade crossing, first in line at the gates, when a speeding
> car comes up from behind and whacks it in the rear, pushing it on the
> tracks. The commuter train hits the car and adds severe injuries to
> whatever injuries the hit-and-run driver caused. The hit-and-run driver,
> in the meantime, reverses, turns around, and hightails it down the street.
> 
> So now, when I'm first in line at a grade crossing, I'm not so much
> worried about a derailment happening in front of me; I'm worried about
> some nut pushing me into the path of an oncoming train or the side of
> a passing-by train!
> 
> Carl Blesch

I've thought about that too, and I just hope it never happens, cause I
usually like to watch a train from at least the first or second car back.

Newsgroups: rec.railroad