Moments later, the passenger train plowed into the SUV and carried it 1,000 feet, killing her and 8 commuters in the train and injuring many others. - If the car is stalled, get out. If you see the gates coming down drive through them or around them. Don't sit in the car!!!!!
In our opinion, driving over a track to "Try and get over it before the train comes" is really STUPID. Is it worth your life and the lives of commuters to get ONE car-length ahead in traffic (and not be able to move anyway)? Of course not.
The driver was not competent to drive. Railroad crossing safety is an important and critical part of a drivers license test. Our sympathies are with the train operators and passengers who lost their lives or were injured. Unfortunately, there are many people driving that shouldn't be and they cost the lives of innocent victims.
SO, Next time you approach a Railroad crossing, DO NOT go over it if there is the bumper of a car stopped on the other side of it. PLEASE. - Rob and Tom
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| The NY Train accident Credit: Christopher Gregory for The New York Times |
NOW, Here's the New York Times article about What to Do if Your Car Is Stuck on the Train Tracks
By ELIZABETH A. HARRISFEB. 4, 2015
What should people do if their cars are stuck on railroad
tracks with a train rushing toward them?
It’s a terrifying question, but on Wednesday, the day
after a Metro-North Railroad train barreled into a sport-utility vehicle in
Valhalla, N.Y., killing six people, safety experts emphasized some best
practices.
Rule number one, of course, is get as far away from the
tracks as possible. But some experts say there is a particular direction you
should try to run: Away from the tracks at a 45 degree angle, in the direction
from which the train is coming.
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| Train/Car accident image from the Internet |
“That actually means run toward the train,” said Joyce
Rose, president of Operation Lifesaver, a nonprofit rail safety education
group. “I know it seems counterintuitive, but this is to avoid being hit by
flying debris. When you run toward the train, you run away from the site of the
potential collision.”
It is better to take an angle, rather than run directly
parallel to the tracks, because trains can overhang the tracks by about three
feet on each side, Ms. Rose said.
According to the most recent annual data from the Federal
Railroad Administration, in 2013, 142 people were killed and 733 were injured
when trains crashed into motor vehicles.
While commuter trains are designed to stop and start
frequently, freight trains, which are generally much heavier and longer, can be
even more dangerous, experts say, because they can take nearly a mile to come
to a full stop, even when the emergency brake is thrown.
“A freight train hitting a car is like a car hitting a
can of pop, it’s a huge mass difference,” said Deborah A.P. Hersman, president
of the National Safety Council. “But just because commuter trains can stop more
quickly doesn't mean they can stop before they actually hit you.”
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| Train/Car accident image from the Internet |
Of course, the safest possible scenario is not to be in
that situation at all. Safety advocates emphasize that drivers sitting in
traffic, for example, should be sure there is enough room to clear the tracks
before they move forward, rather than staying on the tail of the car in front
just because the light is green.
“My father-in-law has a saying,” Ms. Hersman said. “How
do we drive on the ice? And then everyone says, ‘We don’t.’”
Reporting on the Metro-North train crash was contributed
by Lisa W. Foderaro, Winnie Hu, Thomas Kaplan, Corey Kilgannon, William K.
Rashbaum, Marc Santora, Nate Schweber and John Surico, and research by Susan C.
Beachy
