Passenger Trains > FL:BrightLine bags another SUV

70 year old man drives around the crossing gates. With predictable, fatal results

While all of the crossings North of Palm Beach Gardens are quad gates, I believe some older crossings South of there are still just two gates.

https://www.wptv.com/news/region-c-palm-beach-county/lantana/1-dead-after-brightline-train-collides-with-car-near-west-pine-street-in-lantana

Posted from Android

Sad way to lose a father, grandfather, husband whoever.  The engineer sees the swerving around the gates and is just helpless.

How true Tom.
Condolences to the crew and family of the victim/

Sam

Where does one have to be in such a hurry at 70 years old that you feel the need to drive around the gates? By that age, you are usually content to let life come at you as it will. Boggles the mind.

irhoghead Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Where does one have to be in such a hurry at 70
> years old that you feel the need to drive around
> the gates? By that age, you are usually content to
> let life come at you as it will. Boggles the mind.

Maybe his mental capabilities were failing, but no one was willing to take away his keys.

Regardless whether it was a risky judgment or failing mental capabilities, such incidents are very said.

Something like this could even be suicide by train.

There's no way to know.

It isn't unusual to see people drive around the crossing gates or under descending gates here in south Florida. Likely the same folks who blast thru red lights, or drive 80 in 35 mph zones.

Must be something in the water...

Posted from Android

ts1457 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> irhoghead Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Where does one have to be in such a hurry at 70
> > years old that you feel the need to drive
> around
> > the gates? By that age, you are usually content
> to
> > let life come at you as it will. Boggles the
> mind.
>
> Maybe his mental capabilities were failing, but no
> one was willing to take away his keys.
>
> Regardless whether it was a risky judgment or
> failing mental capabilities, such incidents are
> very said.

I doubt it. Probably always drove around the gates since a teen. My mom told me when she was a little girl a neighbor didn’t want to wait for his train to completely stop so he would jump off as it was closer to his house. This was in the 30s and the trains had end platforms.

Well one day as he got old he misjudged the jump and got crushed under the train.

Now that I’m old I realize people don’t change. If an old person acts a certain way they probably always did.

Posted from iPhone