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| Blogs > pac369 > Pulling your own strings... |
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Ignorance, defiance, or natural selection? On Saturday night around 8pm in a suburb of Houston, Tx a driver made a fatal mistake. They were in a Chrysler 300, behind a vehicle, stopped at a train crossing. The lights were flashing, the gates were down. Based on what pac knows the train should have been blowing its horn. A distinct type of horn blowing that any train does approaching a crossing... With all of this going on. This particular driver knew these safety features didn't apply t o them. They drove around the vehicle and the gates... While in the middle of the crossing they sustained a direct hit from a Amtrak passenger train. Even a passenger train cannot stop on a dime. It's likely the train was travelling at 70 mph. There is no telling when the engineer saw the car on the track, due to darkness. Even with a emergency application of the brakes. Their speed would have still been high when they hit the car... As evidenced when the car burst in t o flames and both occupants were thrown from the vehicle! And pronounced dead on the scene. Obviously a horrific sight! That never had t o happen. No matter how many PSA's are released about safety around a train. These accidents and close calls happen nearly everyday around the country. In pac's ten years of driving a train she cannot count how many close calls she had... Of course these people won't make the same mistake again! Most tend t o forget the other human elements in this tragedy. Besides the people waiting at the crossing, is the train engineers. Amtrak has two in the lead engine. Who watched their train destroy the car, saw the people ejected from the car, as they did everything possible t o stop the train... pac's train accident and fatality lead t o months of counseling. As the guilt overwhelms and affects all aspects of your life. Doesn't matter that you didn't do anything wrong. How you were only doing your job. There is a percentage of engineers who never return after this kind of accident... Driving is a privilege that most of us get compliant about. When it come's to trains though. Just remember this; they are unforgiving and will kill you in a heartbeat!!  ~ Physical strength is measured by what we carry. Inner strength is measured by what we can bear. ~ |
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These stories piss me off!  ~ Physical strength is measured by what we carry. Inner strength is measured by what we can bear. ~
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Agreed
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It's just plain stupidity and impatience!
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I think natural selection but eliminating the idiots. So many to choose from.
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My opinion is not ignorance (implies lack of education), so I conclude stupidity plus defiance (not for me) combined to enact the Darwin Law natural selection.
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What possibly could be occurring in their life to make that fatal choice. What couldn't wait for a train to pass?? 
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a good reminder
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It happens here, sometimes too, I really cant understand what happened in their brain, that makes them think, they are beyond all and everything... Also, i get very, very mad, at those morrons! The 'engine driver' is for the rest of his/her live damaged. I was once in such a train, in Holland a lot of mental 'hospitals' are situated near a train treck SO, it is known to about everyone in Holland, that suicides are very common there.... I understand the desperation, for wanting to end your life, when you dont see any light anymore at the end of the tunnel... BUT! You take with you, a whole lot of other people, too! ANd, people in such a hurry....? natural selection.!
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Happens down in FL by me at least once a week with the Brightline trains...unreal how stupid some people can be!
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I suspect that too many people wear earbuds when they drive which may drown out the sound of an approaching train. It's sad.
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pac This story made the News here! It is so sad and some people are just so stupid! A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing. George Bernard Shaw Jenny
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Some people are just plain reckless. I'm sure there is some way to keep cars from even trying to cross the tracks when a train is coming, but the cost would be phenomenal. I'm also sorry you had to have that kind of experience. People forget that the trauma isn't just for the ones receiving the injuries from their carelessness, it's also the people who had no control of the situation, but were involved anyway.
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The driver certainly deserves a Darwin Award this year. Industrial strength stupid doesn't even come close to describing their action. Being hit by a train ranks in my top three phobias ... I look both ways about a thousand times before I cross one, and even then my head's on a swivel as I drive across. Make Women Female Again
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I recently saw the local ambulance zig zag through the gates, they made it by seconds as the Amtrak blew through town at 70 MPH. The ambulance was parked at the coffee shop a block up the road.
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very tradgic sad circumstance that didn’t need to ever happen...you mess w fate you’ll get the horn!
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We have a one track passenger train line that runs infrequently. At another crossing traffic backs up to the tracks so if you don't leave enough distance between the car in front you could end stopped on the tracks. I always wait until there is enough room before I cross.. [image]
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4/22/2022 4:47 am |
I saw this too. These come up every now and again. I always wonder if there is something we don't know to try to put some logic to it. But there is no logic.
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Just so tragic to read, and so unnecessary to happen. .. . . but for the driver to risk his own life. . .his passenger has no option for himself
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