Tractor vs. Train

Maka · Dec 14, 2005

Well, this one happened last year. I believe the man is now recovered but had fractures and other trauma. My store is down the road and we remember when this happened. Very lucky he was not killed instantly.

Be Careful,
Maka

Tractor vs. Train

SkyPup · Dec 14, 2005

"Failed To Yield To A Train" could have easily been the last mistake he ever made. /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

3RRL · Dec 14, 2005

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( "Failed To Yield To A Train" could have easily been the last mistake he ever made.)</font>

So true...
My son did exactly that about 10 years ago except he was driving a Ford Ranger pick up. Broke nearly every bone in his body but lived and is, incredibly, doing fine now.(was 19 then)
He tried to beat the "slow" train and it cut the front end off the truck, leaving him in the cab. The front end and motor were about 500 feet down the tracks....and the train was not going fast, but he was.
I will never forget that phone call telling me my son was involved in a "train" accident. Can't begin to tell you what I was thinking and feeling...

deere755 · Dec 14, 2005

A friend of mines daughter was riding in the middle of the front seat of a car with her boyfriend and his cousin. They were hit by a train and it killed both boys. She was very lucky to have lived. She was conscious when the first people arrived. It took alot of therapy, but she is ok today.

ym2610 · Dec 15, 2005

here in Stevenson to many people have been killed by car VS train, needless to say sorry but they lost, putting up lights have helped. one time something funny happened, a Huntsville news channel did a story here, when headed back to Huntsville theres a real sharp curve almost 90 degree, than the tracks, they missed the curve ended up on the tracks, while waiting for a tow truck, a long came the train, news van lost that fight too, I think they even caught it on tape, the driver claimed the tire blew is why he didn't make the curve. we laughed for awhile over that one. just thought I would share some good news LOL.. Robert

kenmac · Dec 15, 2005

I had someone from Southern RR talk to me once concerning grade crossing safety. They say that the engine is so large that it gives the appearence of moving slow when the engine is actually moving fast so, people try to cross in front of the train and are hit. Most anything vs a train looses.Don't be in such a hurry to get somewhere that you loose your life & never get there.

GaryM · Dec 15, 2005

I was once told by a railroader that "a train is half as far away as it looks, and it's going four times as fast as it looks".

rk246 · Dec 15, 2005

We refer to it as the " rule of lugnuts." The one with the most wins....

waynokakid · Dec 15, 2005

Being a railroad employee for 17 years, I have seen first hand what a train can do to a vehicle and its occupants. I have often wondered why a person cannot take a few minutes out of their day to wait for a train to pass. One going 30 miles an hour that is a mile long only takes a couple of minutes to pass. Remember if it is a tie you lose!

kenmac · Dec 16, 2005

People don't think about train that is a mile long & going 30 mph can't stop. It takes a long time for train 1 mile long @ 30 mph to to get stopped

keeney · Dec 17, 2005

My Mom's 2nd husband is a retired railroader, and one of the things he says he always found curious was the number of vehicles he has seen that collide with trains, not by getting hit by the locamotive at the front, but running flat into the side of the train. He said its even common for people to T-bone a stopped train sitting across the road.

Worst thing that ever happened to the train: a minor derailment. Usually just some bent handrails and scratched paint.

He did say that besides intensely cold weather screwing up tracks and switches, that collisions at uncontrolled crossings are the most common cause of delay. The less crossings along a given line, the higher the chances the trains on it will run on time.

He said that they don't even bother to try a panic stop. All they can really do is lay on the horn and maybe start the process of slowing down. If they actually hit somebody, then they come to a normal stop. Sometimes, in the case of people running into the side of the train, the guys on the train don't even know about it until somebody tells them on the radio...

Steve_Miller · Dec 17, 2005

The picture in this article looked almost identical to an accident that happened in Milford, Nova Scotia a few years ago. A man was crossing at a double crossing with a large Deere tractor that looked similar to this one. It was a private crossing into a farm, one of the tracks was a siding that CN parked cars on a regular basis, they would only leave a car length or so on each side of the crossing. The guy was inching ahead to see down the tracks and low and behold a VIA train was coming, he tried to back up but could not get out of the way fast enough as the limit was 55MPH through this part on the division. It tore the front end off the tractor, the driver was banged up but not hurt seriuosly. They have not used this track for storage since. The train survived relatively well other than cosmetic damage. There have been numerous accidents along this line in the past number of years. We had a dump truck from our company collide with a train. No serious injury to either train or driver (truck was a right-off). Two or three weeks ago a guy was walking along the tracks with his dog and a train came along and the dog must have got spooked, anyhow the guy tried to get the dog of the tracks, needless to say he and the dog died as result. A couple of years ago a half ton was returning some pallets to a sod company just down the road from me at a private crossing and was hit, I came along a short time after this one happening with the train partially blocking the crossing down the line further (about a kilometer past the accident, took the VIA train the long to get stopped), I noticed the radiator of something logded in the fuel tanks of the lead locomotive, I looked at the wife and said that didn't look good. Two men were killed instantly. No one knows what happened, it was on a level crossing with one to two miles visibility in both directions. You'll never win a one on one battle with a 200 ton locomotive unless you have someone else from above on your side. Please don't dismiss these accidents as news.

Steve

ym2610 · Dec 18, 2005

Hey Keeney I have a lot of railroad guys that come into my work, they have said that to, they don't lock the brakes, but because it will flat spot the wheels and will cost the railroad many many thousands of dollars to fix, and they wouldn't get stopped in time anyway. just wondering if your moms husband every said anything like that also. Robert

keeney · Dec 19, 2005

He also said that depending on how the train is loaded, a panic stop is likely to cause empty cars to derail and related damage and delay.

Mostly, they don't want to do anything that would tie up the tracks any longer than they have to, The delay is the most expensive thing - many of the loads they carry have time sensitive contracts.

slapshot · Dec 20, 2005

I'm often amazed at how people a deathly afriad of a bullet flying towards them (for obvious reason), but a train or a tractor trailer instills no fear!?!? A bullet weighs but a few grams but a truck or train................

-dave

rk246 · Dec 21, 2005

I think if must have to do with the thought that there is a live person operating the machine, which must intill the feeling that they won't let anything happen?

KubotaSteve · Dec 22, 2005

I ride a passenger train to work everyday and we have hit quite a few things and the train has always won for the most part. We hit deer quite frequently and it just like driving on a gravel road. We hit a car once and tore the front bumper cover off. The only way I knew we hit anything was the engineer locked the brakes and we slid for a couple of miles and the conductor told us what happened. Even with a 7 car passenger train to get slowed down from 70 mph it took us about 2 miles. A boulder had fallen onto the edge of the track once and we hit it with a glancing blow. It bent the front of the train and the steps to get up to the engine pretty bad. The boulder weighed several tons and a crane had to come and move it off the tracks. When they hit a person with a train, about the only investigation is to pick the pieces and put them in a small bag and drug test the engineer.