Passenger Trains > Near disaster in Ashland VA Sunday evening 11/21/21

As captured on North facing static live cam at Ashland VA a bit after 1930 Sunday evening 11/21/21:
At 17:31:13, a little red car heading west on England St makes a turn south onto track 2 at the crossing and stops. Realizing his/her mistake, the driver starts to back-up but stops as the crossing lights start to flash as southbound Autotrain P053 is approaching on track 3. Car passengers can likely also see there's a northbound train coming on track 2. For unknown reason, driver then pulls forward trying to clear the crossing but car gets stuck in the gauge once completely off the crossing.
At 17:31:58, three occupants abandon ship but hold a brief confab around the stuck auto as P053 cruises by at ~30mph.

More....

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At 17:32:11, one of the occupants realizes the northbound train (Amtrak 090) should be stopped so he trots down the street alongside track 2 waving his arms. I'm guessing P090's engineer had already been alerted by P053's engineer). P090 from Savannah is fortunately stopped and by 17:35, the local constables arrive to inestigate and photograph the scene and manage traffic at the crossing. At 17:53, a tow truck arrives to retrieve the little red car and it is successfully winched backed onto the crossing and then driven to a nearby parking space by 18:01. At 18:13:15,  2 crew members of P090 have walked up to the crossing lighting fusees to permit trains to cross England St. At 18:15:50, P090 edges across the road on track 2 picking up a crew member as southbound Amtrak P157 from Springfield MA arrives at the depot on track 3.

And the little red car drives off....

After P090 cleared the crossing, two crew members from P157 then protected the crossing with lit fusees at 1820 as P157 continued south. Simultaneously, a CSX maintainer arrived on the scene and spent a couple seconds eye-balling track 2 at the crossing. And at 18:56, the northbound Night Owl P066 passed normally through the crossing to make its station stop.
 

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Thanks for relaying this,  very interesting to catch it all on the cam

Bob

edit: is puzzling why he pulled forward, Panic?? but did avoid disaster.  Also there is no place to trun left so hard to say where he was trying to go.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/22/21 07:55 by robj.

Great job JPB.  (your next career can be as a news reporter with accurate railroad descriptions/explanations)
jb

No traffic citation ? Oh yeaah, we aren't doing that anymore ;-)

SanDiegan Wrote:
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> No traffic citation ? Oh yeaah, we aren't doing
> that anymore ;-)

Why would you think one was not issued?

Great job catching all that. The result could have been much worse.

Posted from iPhone

It is hard to correct stupld, unless the driver was somehow impaired...by drugs, alcohol or a medical emergency situation.  

Seems to be ''A Thing'' here.3 in the last 9 days.Wonder if they are somehow getting confused as to where to turn.Reported here some time ago ,of similar incidents at a crossing in Jack London Square.
Regards,DK

I have seen on Metra between tracks they have yellow marker sticks.

Bob

Posted from Android

This reoccuring problem may have some blame placed on the city itself. Looking at Google Maps, it appears that only until recently, a person driving west bound on England St could turn left onto south bound S Railroad Ave running alongside the west side of the railroad tracks. However, as can be seen in the camera, that is now blocked off. So POSSSIBLY some one driving westbound on England St unfamlliar with the intersection or the area has been instructred by GPS to turn left onto S Railroad Ave on the west side of the railroad tracks but when they go to do so, they see the blocks and get confused and turn onto the tracks themselves.

The way that intersection is designed, I would think there should be a line of red reflectors in the white crossed area of pavement.

Using Google Maps street view, it even shows that the center lane of west bound England is L"LEFT TURN ONLY" which now is onto the railroad tracks.

NO, not excusing anyone from driving onto the tracks. The driver is fully responsible for his/her actions. Just saying when a problem keeps happening, time to look for other common factors as well.

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Wouldn’t be terribly difficult to install a crossing gate across the tracks on each side of the road that activates with the normal crossing protection just in reverse.

Maybe the driver was trying to get to one of those buildings on the east side of the tracks and when he found the left turn blocked he simply decided to go around the blocking devices.

DKay Wrote:
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> Seems to be ''A Thing'' here.3 in the last 9
> days.Wonder if they are somehow getting confused
> as to where to turn.Reported here some time ago
> ,of similar incidents at a crossing in Jack London
> Square.
> Regards,DK

Yes. The VR grab bag has had several of these drive onto the tracks episodes.

One involved a straight ahead onto the tracks from the side street by Hometown Realty. Flash of sparks as he went over two rails.

Had to be lifted out with a flatbed and tow chain.

Posted from Android

So why was access to the west side of South Railroad Ave blocked off?

Seems like making it a requirement to place a bright Yellow line along the edge of the roadway at grade crossings may catch the attention of drivers as to where the road ends and where they are not supposed to go. Most drivers know that they are not supposed to cross a yellow line hopefully.