Passenger Trains > Amtrak Train Strikes Car in SF Bay Area

Local TV news are reporting that an Amtrak train struck an unoccupied car at a grade crossing in Newark, CA (north of San Jose) around 8:20 PM on Wednesday, March 4.

Passenger trains and unoccupied vehicles? Is this becoming the new fad in California? Hope this crew is doing OK.

John

wa4umr Wrote:
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> Passenger trains and unoccupied vehicles? Is this
> becoming the new fad in California? Hope this
> crew is doing OK.
>
> John

Drivers are getting a little smarter, they get out of the car before the train smacks them now!

PHall Wrote:
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> wa4umr Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Passenger trains and unoccupied vehicles? Is
> this
> > becoming the new fad in California? Hope this
> > crew is doing OK.
> >
> > John
>
> Drivers are getting a little smarter, they get out
> of the car before the train smacks them now!
And thats what the truck driver did in oxnard when he saw the train coming at him.
C

Carol Voss
Bakersfield, CA

Or, as I sit here watching the Twilight Zone, there might be other explanations....

Amtrak has had a busy week in the Bay Area. I believe it was Monday when a Capitol Corridor train hit and killed someone on the tracks in Albany.

Todays incident, if the locomotive was leading at the time was probably an Amtrak P42 that will have to go to the shops. Glad no one was hurt in this one.

Gary

There was also an Amtrak vs trespasser incident Tuesday somewhere between Richmond and Berkeley. At least one Capital Corridor train was annulled. I have no other details except what I picked up as a passenger between SJC and Emeryville. Service was restored to normal by around 6 pm. I'm pretty sure the train involved was going southbound.

SN711 Wrote:
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> Amtrak has had a busy week in the Bay Area. I
> believe it was Monday when a Capitol Corridor
> train hit and killed someone on the tracks in
> Albany.
>
> Todays incident, if the locomotive was leading at
> the time was probably an Amtrak P42 that will have
> to go to the shops. Glad no one was hurt in this
> one.
>
> Gary

F59 in the lead this time. Hopefully a quick nose job in Oakland will get the fix done.

Westbound Cappy; 537 as I recall. Whacked a trespasser at Central Ave. in Richmond.
Schedules were fouled up for a while with at least one Cappy annulled.



norm1153 Wrote:
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> There was also an Amtrak vs trespasser incident
> Tuesday somewhere between Richmond and Berkeley.
> At least one Capital Corridor train was annulled.
> I have no other details except what I picked up as
> a passenger between SJC and Emeryville. Service
> was restored to normal by around 6 pm. I'm pretty
> sure the train involved was going southbound.

For those that don't know, Central Ave is an overpass.

Larry

Local TV news this morning said that the auto involved in last night's collision drove around the gates that were coming down, then realized they wouldn't be able to make it out the other end of the grade crossing in time. So, all 3 persons in the vehicle bailed just before the locomotive struck the vehicle. No one in auto or on train injured.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 03/05/15 14:33 by chakk.

And worth watching is this video.

http://kron4.com/2015/03/04/people-behaving-badly-faster-than-a-speeding-train/


which was filmed at the same Menlo Park location where a woman died last week when her vehicle was hit by a Caltrain traveling at track speed -- 79 mph.

What's even more crazy is that this was filmed just a couple of days AFTER the deadly crash, which had been extensively covered by local news media.

<sigh>



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/05/15 14:34 by chakk.

Tnx for sharing the KRON clip. Note that even tho max. track speed there is 79mph, Caltrain believes actual speed of that train was only in 50s as it wudda been slowing for Palo Alto(next stop). Incident has given rise to predictable resumption of 'studies' about ways to make the crossing safer(e.g. grade sparation).

Steve Donaldson
Pacific Grove, CA