Passenger Trains > Caltrain Double Strike at Broadway

Per radio traffic southbound Caltrain #512 at 13:37 slammed into a vehicle at
Broadway in Burlingame throwing wreckage into the path of northbound #509.
Assuming normal operation both trains would have been moving at about 70 m.p.h.
No derailment and no report yet on injuries.

The California PUC identified Broadway in the past year as the # 1 most critically
needed grade separation project in the state(out of 10,000+ crossings).

https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?4,5566034,5566152#msg-5566152

I live a little over a mile from the accident scene. I walked down to the pedestrian crossing south of Broadway when I received an alert from San Mateo County about a collision at Broadway. I won’t share photos, having learned it was a fatal accident and seeing the coroner van and what was left of the vehicle. It was essentially unrecognizable as a car but for the tires off the rim next to the wreckage. It's sad regardless, but I hope that I or my children aren't friends with the victim or their family.

I’ve been on Caltrain when it's hit a vehicle at the Broadway grade crossing, and a grade separation at this location is long overdue. I'm not surprised that the PUC has it as a top priority.

Sean
 

Main one reopened just after 16:00 with single tracking in place.  Worth noting that Baby Bullet
#702 struck a vehicle at the exact same spot nine days ago on Nov. 22(non-fatal).  There will certainly
be more incidents at Broadway between now and completion of the planned grade separation project.
 

Living in the area I frequently cross the tracks at Broadway, Oak Grove, North Lane, Howard, etc. While there are impatient drivers that will occasionally honk if you stop short of the grade crossing, I'm constantly telling my soon to be driving children that they should never start across the tracks unless it's clear that they can get all the way across unimpeded. This includes needing to anticipate that a vehicle in front of them might stop due to pedestrians, etc. While the circumstances of this incident are TBD, I constantly see people stopping on that grade crossing or in a hurry trying to beat the lights or crossing gates.

Attached is a shot of the grade crossing where the accident occurred. There is about 200 feet between the light at California Drive and the light at Carolan. Within less than a quarter mile there are 4 different intersections with traffic lights on Broadway. This is a busy road that is frequently gridlocked due to traffic as it provides access to a major freeway (101) that parallels the tracks a quarter mile to the east, just out of view of the attached image. Throw in up to 8 trains per hour, and you can quickly see the problem.

The vehicle that was hit today wound up south of the grade crossing and south of the train platforms near the bottom of the image. It sounds (and looked) like the southbound train hit it and push it south of the grade crossing, and then it was subsequently hit by the northbound train and flung to the west side of the tracks.

Sean

milepost20 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Main one reopened just after 16:00 with single
> tracking in place.  Worth noting that Baby
> Bullet
> #702 struck a vehicle at the exact same spot nine
> days ago on Nov. 22(non-fatal).  There will
> certainly
> be more incidents at Broadway between now and
> completion of the planned grade separation
> project.
>  

---

The car looked like one of those scrap metal squares. Terrible accident.
Regards, Jim Evans

So sad.  I've been trying to coach my kids, one of whom drives, about crossing the tracks safely whether by car, bike, or foot.  And to always assume there's another train on the other track - which we've seen happen a few times and is fun to watch, safely from a distance.  

I'm just glad this incident didn't turn out like the Metrolink Glendale crash back in 2005.

Nathan

When was this photo taken?  How is it possible there isn't any traffic on any of those busy streets? 

ExStarlightHog Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> When was this photo taken?  How is it possible
> there isn't any traffic on any of those busy
> streets?

Not sure when it was taken but I'm looking at Google Maps and there are cars in the imagery at the crossing but they're semi-transparent. Looks like there's been an effort to remove them to a degree. In Google Earth no such effort was made the roadway is teeming with automobiles.