Passenger Trains > FL more train vs car, pedestrians

After a few weeks of relative calm, Florida East Coast, BrightLine, and Tri-Rail have all seen fatal collisions. By my count, seven in about three weeks.

The latest was Friday evening in south West Palm Beach, on what I believe is a four quad gate set up. It's not clear whether the vehicle was on the tracks, or driving on the right of way.

https://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/20190906/west-palm-beach-police-person-killed-by-virgin-train

Posted from Android

An update says the driver waited at the gates for a southbound train to pass.

When the gates failed to go up, he went around the gates. Where he became a hood ornament for a northbound train.

Posted from Android

Something in the water in Floriduh, ya just can't stupid.

Lackawanna484 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> An update says the driver waited at the gates for
> a southbound train to pass.
>
> When the gates failed to go up, he went around the
> gates. Where he became a hood ornament for a
> northbound train.
>
> Posted from Android

We see that at commuter rail stations all the time that have 2 tracks and 2 platforms. The evening rush train clears, they walk around the downed gates, even though there might be an opoposing train for which they have zero visibility in its approach. 

The car involved in the Friday night collision was a 2008 black Corvette.

In a separate incident a 74 year old woman received a brush back from an FEC train in Fort Pierce. She was not seriously injured.

Posted from Android

if the crossing gate had a sign "You are being held for two trains. Have you  seen the second one" it might help the Florida water they drink.

Watched tv several years back showing a greveing father telling about his son that was killed by a train after he had driven around crossing gates. These only protected one lane each way, he wanted better ones, never said what kind. Guess they could put up some of those posts that come up out of the ground, barriers that extend out beyond the lights and have deep ditches to keep cars from crossing around the gate posts.................um any more ideas?  It boggles the mind that its the trains fault, its the railroads fault heck it might be your fault..........



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/10/19 05:29 by BAB.

The crossing where the incident happened is not equipped with quad gates - there's a soft barrier on the yellow line which in theory prevents someone from driving into the oncoming lane in order to go around the gates.  However, this soft barrier only extends about 10 feet back from the crossing - it is very easy for someone to avoid them (or drive right over them) in an attempt to skirt the gates.  Additionally, this crossing is in a quiet zone, so oncoming trains normally do not blow the horn.  I suspect this dude was driving up to the crossing as the southbound was passing, and decided to just swerve into the oncoming lane (avoiding the soft barrier) to go around the gates without stopping.

Thanks for that info.

Posted from Android