Trains and "T" s don't mix

[Gary_in_MN]

My mom told me not to play on the tracks.

[Jerry VanOoteghem]

You just have to wonder, how hard is it to not get hit by a train? How does/did this happen so frequently?

[TXGOAT2]

I've yet to be pursued by a train.

[Norman Kling]

I learned not to shift gears while crossing a train track. I was driving a 38 Ford V8 with reputation of getting stuck in first and second at the same time. Had to remove the shift plate from top of the transmission to get it unstuck. I shifted right when I crossed the track and that happened. Can't even push the car when that happens. I don't know how he did it, but a Motorcycle cop get his front wheel against my rear bumper and was able to skid my car off! Fortunately no train came while I was stuck! With a T I suspect it was the brakes not being able to stop before crossing the track or just not looking to see if a train was coming.
Norm

[John Codman]

You just have to wonder, how hard is it to not get hit by a train? How does/did this happen so frequently?

Because too many people are stupid. To get hit, you have to go to the train; it doesn't come to you. A train has the right of way at all grade crossings and whenever it is moving on it's rails. Period. It ain't all that hard to grasp.

[kmatt2]

My first job out of college as a Civil Engineer was working on a survey crew for the A T & S F railroad. One of our jobs was to due accident investigation drawings of the wreckage for legal purposes. The one thing you learn from the survivors is that car drivers tend to vastly misjudge the speed of the approaching train and the distance a train takes to stop. The other thing you learn is that drivers that got hit assure that if they see a stopped train, they assume it is the only train on the two tracks at the crossing, not realizing that there is another train passing the stopped train. Modern gated railroad crossings and driver education has helped to some extent with reducing railroad crossing accidents but can not eliminate the stupidity of some drivers.

[TXGOAT2]

People drive around gates. Trains cannot stop.

[Junk poor]

I would have to see the train before I could choose a winner.

[jiminbartow]

A cow catcher would have helped in these situations.

[Gary_in_MN]

Photo appears to a TT truck, short running board and brackets. Gary

[varmint]

Strangely, I felt a train go by moments ago.
If I saw my hat after something like this happened to me, I would pick it up and put it back on my head. Yet #3, a hat rests on the top.
Last one. A car was just struck, while on the tracks, yet, a man observes the wreck while standing in the middle of the tracks.

[John Codman]

On another forum I mentioned that I had been watching a documentary about how New York (actually Long Island) engineers are trained (no pun). A woman was the trainee and an instructor engineer was the trainer. He told her that at some point in her career as an engineer she would be involved in a grade crossing accident where the driver of the car or truck will be killed; can you deal with that?

[jiminbartow]

That photo of the T on the tracks with the guy standing on the hood looks like it was taken in Southern California where they used to shoot silent movies. Having a camera set up at that location is too much of a coincidence for it not to be intentional. That could be Fatty Arbuckle or another comedic actor on the hood ready to jump as the train hits the T. They took a lot of dangerous chances back then.

[Wayne Sheldon]

I have seen that film clip several times in the past, usually as a piece of some sort of collage or clips based commentary. I may have seen the actual film it was from years ago, I have seen so many and enjoyed all of them. But that clip was very popular and used often in later years for a variety of artistic re-uses.
I am fairly sure that it was Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle.