Plan B Forum

I've been reading today about the Metro North rail crash in Valhalla and am just sick about it.

One of most basic rules of driving that I learned in Driver's Ed - never, EVER enter the rail crossing area unless there is room to cross completely. EVER, NEVER!!

I have suffered the horns of assholes behind me in faith to this rule, which is based on physical science that clearly exhibits the inability of a hundreds of thousands of pounds heavy train to stop when a car or other object is in its path.

Out here in rural Montana we have somewhat regular collisions between trains and vehicles - some are from foolish drivers attempting to beat the train, but most are suicides. It is a very efficient method - albeit a hateful thing to do to a train engineer.

I feel such pity for the poor souls burned alive in the front car of the MN train. I have none whatsoever for the idiot driver of the SUV who, while in an already slow-moving line of traffic, felt so 'rushed' to fulfill her self-centered expectations for the evening that she drove into the crossing zone and then, when the crossing arm closed on her vehicle, proceeded onto the tracks rather than staying put. Stupid silly bitch.

I have suffered the horns of assholes

When, oh when will we stop bringing Stephen Fry into every thread?!

bigskygal wrote:I've been reading today about the Metro North rail crash in Valhalla and am just sick about it.

One of most basic rules of driving that I learned in Driver's Ed - never, EVER enter the rail crossing area unless there is room to cross completely. EVER, NEVER!!

I have suffered the horns of assholes behind me in faith to this rule, which is based on physical science that clearly exhibits the inability of a hundreds of thousands of pounds heavy train to stop when a car or other object is in its path.

Out here in rural Montana we have somewhat regular collisions between trains and vehicles - some are from foolish drivers attempting to beat the train, but most are suicides. It is a very efficient method - albeit a hateful thing to do to a train engineer.

I feel such pity for the poor souls burned alive in the front car of the MN train. I have none whatsoever for the idiot driver of the SUV who, while in an already slow-moving line of traffic, felt so 'rushed' to fulfill her self-centered expectations for the evening that she drove into the crossing zone and then, when the crossing arm closed on her vehicle, proceeded onto the tracks rather than staying put. Stupid silly bitch.

Science tells you how things actually work:

global warming is real
vaccines prevent disease
locomotives weigh ca 423,000 lb (192,000 kilograms) -
trains take a half-mile to stop
prayer has no effect on any of it

yrs,
rubato

That's true and (oddly enough) nor does knowing all of that...

Actually, at that point Metro North does not use locomotives per se; each car contains an electric motor powered by the electrified (third rail) controlled by the engineer from a first car (like in most subways). Those cars weigh far less than conventional locomotives--about 170,000 lbs as I recall. But they're still big enough to take a long time to stop.

This accident has brought back memories of a train/van crash that happened on Herricks Rd in Mineola NY. I was a volly at the time when a van full of teens tried to beat the train. They didn't. There were 9 teens in hte van and by some miracle, one survived. My engine company was first on the scene. My first thought was "how can the human body hold so much blood". It was a river coming out of evey oprening of hte van (which now had more than intended). At first we didn't realise there was a survivor as the inside of hte van was just a mash of bodies squished together.
Later on I was assigned to "body parts" recovery as some pieces were missing.
Worse thing I ever went through. I still can picture what I saw when we pried the van open.

It happened late on a weekend night/early morning. I was home watching TV and the call came over hte radio about a marroon ch vy van htat was hit. My mom heard the broadcast and my brother had a marroon chevy van and was not home at the time. She was a backet case until I got in touch with her (much later, no cell phones) to tell her it wasn't my brother nor his van.

The MTA/LIRR has changed the crossings in Mineola and they are no longer "at grade" crossings.

My thoughts and prayers are with the victims.