Every evening I try to take about a 3 mile walk around my town, and usually get to see at least one train. Tonight I caught the 261, and an unknown westbound immediately behind it.
Nothing too exceptional, but still cool.
I noticed an 18 wheeler stopped while walking in front of the Italian restaurant and thought the trucker must have been asking for directions.
My walk took me away from the tracks for about 5 minutes.
When I walked across Haas at crossing and looked west, I saw the same truck on the main fowling both tracks between Home Ave and Main St.
After calling the NS police, who said they had already been notified, I walked to the scene of the event.
The driver was an Eastern European woman who barely spoke English but was very polite and grateful to the firefighters that helped to get the rig off the tracks.
Here's some photos, enjoy!
PA Dan
(http://tapatalk.imageshack.com/v2/15/02/09/db45994a29040147352fde47706fac3e.jpg)(http://tapatalk.imageshack.com/v2/15/02/09/43bd896c8228b4ec3b002cea0c3d85aa.jpg)(http://tapatalk.imageshack.com/v2/15/02/09/f752b4fefdfccb60db23e779030a6c6a.jpg)(http://tapatalk.imageshack.com/v2/15/02/09/b1a1378e33806ec9f9d9fbba71186bab.jpg)
Another person who thinks train tracks are rarely used, if at all. It goes on, and on, and on. Good thing one didn't come along then. That would have made another big mess, and gotten people killed. What are people thinking? That situation in NY probably takes the cake. The woman driver was parked on the tracks with the gates down, meaning that a train was coming, and she was concerned with what a gate did to the roof of her car, never mind that a train was heading her way, which would do far more damage than a crossing gate. Wedding party on bridge, promotional film shoot on tracks, people walking out on long trestles and bridges, people trying to beat trains, driver caught between gates and not paying attention--what next? Why is it that some people don't think about what could happen. I guess the driver of this semi was trying to turn around. Getting out on "active" train tracks is not a good place to do that.
I think the saving grace last night was the number of folks who called NS police before 911 to report the incident.
I've lived here almost 12 years in which time:
1) A soda delivery truck had its tractor pummeled by a EB manifest(no injuries),
2) A really nice Lincoln Town Car with NJ plates turned onto the tracks and was pummeled by an EB ethanol train (no injuries),
3) A teenage punk committed suicide by 18N (I missed witnessing that one by 30 seconds, the train was still rolling to a stop when I drove across a crossing about a half mile east of the scene),
4) I witnessed a minivan full of young girls on their way home from a basketball game turn into the tracks (Many called NS Police, we got the girls out and to safety, while drunks from local bar picked van up onto the road)
5) A kid I grew up with who was always a bit troubled decided to end it all by laying his neck on the rail in front of a westbound (the stories I heard were that he was on a bender and was seen earlier that day in really rough shape and acting angry)
6) A truck driver decided it was OK to park his empty (thank goodness) rig on the crossing while he went into a restaurant to ask for directions, even flipping off neighbors who told him to move the truck. Trailer was sliced in half by 15T, trucker still in jail as far as I know.
7) While on another one of my evening walks a girl (not from town, unclear why or how she got here) decided to end it by stepping in front of a train. I didn't see it but heard it unfold (engineer hanging on the horn followed by a brake application). That one had me stuck on the opposite side of the tracks from my house until my wife could drive about 4 or 5 miles out of town to pick me up. Also, that one really affected me for a while to where I didn't enjoy trains as much for a bit.
8. Last evening's events.
These were all in town, and there's been many more along the Reading Line in that I haven't listed in that timeframe.
In short I agree with you Bill, people don't think of what harm their actions can cause for themselves or especially others.
PA Dan
Dan, you mentioned suicides. I have some thoughts on "suicide-by-train"-- No telling how many such suicides are committed, or attempted each year, across the country. If some people want to commit suicide, they shouldn't involve other people, and they shouldn't involve a train. To my thinking, that is very selfish. At the least, the train crew, will be affected emotionally, or some of them will, and it could have a lasting effect on them, maybe even interfere with performing their job after that. I haven't talked to any, so I don't know for sure, but I did see something on KET, probably, over a year ago, in which a train engineer talked about the emotional effects of hitting a vehicle and killing somebody. I think he got emotional talking about it. Besides that, a person attempting suicide-by-train puts the train itself in jeopardy, and people and property alongside the affected train. It could derail, causing expensive damage to engines, rail cars, and non-RR property, and get crew members injured or killed, and other people nearby. It could happen at a crossing. In that case, a train might derail and some rail cars land on, or slide into automobiles waiting at the crossing, all because somebody wanted to "end it all". He or she can end it all for other people too, who don't want to go. Hopefully, people contemplating suicide will get the needed counseling from others, instead of resorting to the rails.
We can only ask ourselves, "What was this driver thinking?" It might be easier to explain if the truck driver were under the influence of something, but for one to soberly think he or she could back a trailer onto a crossing and down the tracks is a scary thing.
How did the truck manage to pull out of the crossing?
If that woman who backed the semi onto those tracks could barely speak English, how did she get a CDL? Seems to me that a person ought to be know the English language well enough to be able to communicate in English, and read road signs, and read what is on a GPS, and anything else necessary to operate a commercial truck in the U.S. They ought to be able to read in English, which is the main language in the U.S., so far.
She didn't back onto the tracks guys, she turned into them from Home Ave and drive a block on them to Main St!!
I overheard one of the volunteer firefighters saying something like, "She says she doesn't speak English, well she's going to learn how right now!" Everyone in earshot chuckled.
As far as how did the trick get back on the road? The firefighters got a bunch of wood blocks to build a little ramp out of the gage and onto the road for the rig's drive axles to climb up. Good old PA Dutch ingenuity at its finest. Once the fire company was on scene the truck was off the mainline with 5 minutes or so.
PA Dan