stupidity claims another victem

Fortunately he only took himself out but it could have been much worse. According to most news stories the driver of the truck went around the closed gates and past the flashing lights while ignoring the ringing bells to derail a commuter train using only his stake-bed truck and no brains. There ws only one casualty so far, the idiot driver. Read more about it here:

http://kcal9.com/topstories/topstoriesla_story_006133141.html

Here:
http://www.nbc4.tv/news/1871300/detail.html

Here:
http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/news/special.html

or here:
http://cbs2.com/topstories/topstoriesla_story_006133141.html

And go here for the latest updates from Metro link:
http://www.metrolinktrains.com/news_update/
 

60103

Pooh Bah
I watched this on the news today.
Note that the cab car was swung all the way around to face in the other direction, the second car went off at right angles on the other side of the track, and the third car sat up on the end of the second.
There was an interesting article in a British mag recently about a manufacturer who has set up a device to rotate a car to any angle for rescue simulations. The writer said that flat on one side was easy to walk through, but angles like 45 degrees were quite disorienting.
Next time you're in a RR car, think how you would get out if it was lying on the windows and the other windows were 10 feet above you. Look at the path to the door in the end -- and which way it opens. And think about doing it after you've fallen the 10 feet from a seat beside that window above you.
Couldn't tell from the TV if these cars have escape holes outlines on the roof; GO has dotted lines in two places where you can attack them with a saw or can opener.
 

John Sneed

New Member
john sneed

No matter how dumb people are, there is always some idiot that will raise the bar to another level. John
 

Rusted

New Member
A 22 year old man lost his life the other night near Mankato, Minnesota. He was found dead in his vehicle at 5 a.m. near a Dakota, Minnesota and Eastern crossing in the small town of Eagle Lake.

DME's last train went through around 12:30 a.m., they reported nothing unusual.

The impact site was found at an intersection 2 miles east. It seems the p/u truck hit a car (probably a covered hopper) broadside, lodged there and was drug the 2 miles before getting spit out as it made contact with a crossing arm component.

Lucky there wasn't a derailment.
 
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