| Re: Trucker Nailed by a Metrolink Train [message #792475] |
Sun, 27 January 2008 23:12 |
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Laurence F. Sheldon, Jr. wrote:
> Scott in SoCal wrote:
>> KTLA is reporting that a Trucker tried to beat a train and lost. The
>> Metrolink commuter train clipped the end of his trailer, spreading
>> wreckage for hundreds of feet.
>
> Presumably the idiot was not injured (that may be the most preventable
> "accident" in the inventory) -- I hope the train crew and passengers are
> OK.
For a trucker this is not always a preventable accident. Some places
require (or the geometry makes necessary) a second stop ON the tracks
to wait for traffic to clear, because traffic won't yield to you just
because you looked both ways before you started across the tracks.
The right answer, IMO, is for all intersections that have that problem
to have signals designed to force the other traffic to yield to you in
that situation.
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| Re: Trucker Nailed by a Metrolink Train [message #792479 ] |
Mon, 28 January 2008 00:38 |
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John David Galt wrote:
> Laurence F. Sheldon, Jr. wrote:
>> Scott in SoCal wrote:
>>> KTLA is reporting that a Trucker tried to beat a train and lost. The
>>> Metrolink commuter train clipped the end of his trailer, spreading
>>> wreckage for hundreds of feet.
>>
>> Presumably the idiot was not injured (that may be the most preventable
>> "accident" in the inventory) -- I hope the train crew and passengers
>> are OK.
>
> For a trucker this is not always a preventable accident. Some places
> require (or the geometry makes necessary) a second stop ON the tracks
> to wait for traffic to clear, because traffic won't yield to you just
> because you looked both ways before you started across the tracks.
That is not a truck-legal route, if true. (There may be some odd corner
or edge case, but police assistance would be required.) A CDL driver
may not legally stop a placarded vehicle on the tracks. He or she can
not legally even shift gears while any part of the vehicle fouls the tracks.
There is (was?) an intersection near Schneider National's yard in
Ashwaubenon that appears to be like that, but it can be safely and
legally negotiated without stopping on the tracks. And if it makes you
nervous, there are other routes that do not have the problem that are
reasonable alternatives.
--
Requiescas in pace o email
Ex turpi causa non oritur actio
http://members.cox.net/larrysheldon/
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