Garden Railway Forum

Yeah! saw that this morning, unbelievable.
After the loco passed the speed sign, I thought this must just be an explanation of what happened, but the truck was still to come.
Grant.

Brown trousers moment!!

Presumably, the truck driver ran through the lights. Or was the crossing faulty?
Are Australian crossings generally ungated?

Rik

ge_rik wrote: ↑Tue Feb 20, 2024 9:26 am Are Australian crossings generally ungated?

Rural crossings are usually ungated. Some really out-of-the-way places still don't have lights either.

It's always the same story at level crossings. Impatience.

This one's the closest non-hit I've seen. Hard to top that.

ge_rik wrote: ↑Tue Feb 20, 2024 9:26 am Presumably, the truck driver ran through the lights. Or was the crossing faulty?
Are Australian crossings generally ungated?

Rik

At 11 seconds you can just see the lights, I think they were working, he just took his chances

This looks similar to a lot of our level crossings. Most of ours have gates around here but the more rural ones don't, and people too often treat the flashing lights like a yellow traffic light: speed up and try to zoom through before the red! (Only in this case, the red is painted on the front of a Canadian National ES44.)

I can't imagine the trauma the train drivers go through every time this happens too.

drewzero1 wrote: ↑Tue Feb 20, 2024 1:59 pm I can't imagine the trauma the train drivers go through every time this happens too.

The consequences for the driver's of trains that strike vehicles/people can be life changing, even if the driver survives without injury. And clearing up the remains is very traumatic.

Lonsdaler wrote: ↑Tue Feb 20, 2024 7:43 pm

drewzero1 wrote: ↑Tue Feb 20, 2024 1:59 pm I can't imagine the trauma the train drivers go through every time this happens too.

The consequences for the driver's of trains that strike vehicles/people can be life changing, even if the driver survives without injury. And clearing up the remains is very traumatic.

I have a friend who as a train driver had a person jump in front of his train to commit suicide; it took him years to come to grips with it.
Biggest issue was him blaming himself for not stopping quickly enough which is quite common.

Near Braunschweig we had an even more stupid lorry driver.

He wanted to deliver things to a mill near BRaunschweig but the road gates were still closed as he was quite early.
He then saw that the railway gates were open and he thought he would just drive his lorry on the railway tracks to the inside of the gates.
Of course he got stuck and the lorry was destroyed by a train.

No one was injured.

GAP wrote: ↑Tue Feb 20, 2024 8:21 pm

Lonsdaler wrote: ↑Tue Feb 20, 2024 7:43 pm

drewzero1 wrote: ↑Tue Feb 20, 2024 1:59 pm I can't imagine the trauma the train drivers go through every time this happens too.

The consequences for the driver's of trains that strike vehicles/people can be life changing, even if the driver survives without injury. And clearing up the remains is very traumatic.

I have a friend who as a train driver had a person jump in front of his train to commit suicide; it took him years to come to grips with it.
Biggest issue was him blaming himself for not stopping quickly enough which is quite common.

We have a friend who works on the London Underground. They go through sessions on how to deal with jumpers as part of their training. After having a jumper they have counselling and a forced break until deemed fit to go back. Apparently it's very common and you are far more likely to have a jumper rather than never have one.