-=Buzz=-

Why in 2004 are people still crossing railway lines in their vehicles??

Can't we build bridges ffs?

And the latest thing is it was maybe a guy trying to kill himself - unconfirmed reports that he was driving along the track!

WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON IN THIS COUNTRY???

pslewis

Its less than 10 miles away from me

Pete

stephen emery

Thats bad new

Maybe next time

scoobypreza

Dunk

iTrader: (1)

I know that crossing well, the gates only cover the half the road width on either side, so it would be easy to weave round them even if they were down.

D

fast bloke

damn - unlucky (for us )

Wish

iTrader: (2)

Bad Taste guys .....

fast bloke

OK - some people I don't know have died or been injured. What do you want me to do, call a national day of grief??? ffs - people die every day. people die in scoobs, doesn't mean we can't mention scoobs for a mandatory period afterwards. my uncle died of alcoholic poisoning - doesn't mean it is bad taste cos we have a drink at his wake

pslewis

It's bad taste because you are wishing the King of SN an ill wind!!

Pete

StickyMicky

my GF rang me up about this earlier on

she got on the train just before that one, and was a bit shook up. makes you think

fast bloke

[farts at pete]

pete - that is an ill wind

Wish

iTrader: (2)

NO ! Its bad taste cos there are people in there hour of need, and there are people sitting in their comfey homes wishing it on others.

That in my book is bad taste.

fast bloke

you don't know Pete then ????

fast bloke

btw - congratulations on writing 'the book of my taste which applies to all'

scoob_babe

It's so easy to snake through the half barriers though - I've actually been stationary at a crossing and some muppet overtook me and zig-zagged through and made it although this was a while ago (Just as well the train was late).
Lucky it wasn't a main line 'just' the Cleethorpes-Manchester Pennine route with lots of local stops so not going fast however they're still heavy with a lot of stopping distance required!

-=Buzz=-

6 dead now.

Just galls me that some idiot can do this to 6 families 8 weeks before Xmas. What did THEY do to deserve this?? There MUST be a way to prevent this.


And on the BBC the police have announced that local celebrity PSLewis isn't amongst the dead but does appear to have suffered some awful brain injury...

David Lock

OK - so here's an idea. Buzz - sadly bridges are out of the question from a practical and cost view point.

But what about a simple system whereby a device that emits a signal from one side of the rail crossing to the other is set up. If this signal is interrupted for more than say, 10 seconds (the time it takes a car to cross), then the signal radios an alarm that can be picked up by an approaching train (and local control centre) so at least driver is alerted and can slow down until he is in visual contact with crossing? Would obviously need tweaking to cover odd circumstances but could be solar powered for example and I can't see this would cost the earth (less than 8 new carriages and 6 lives ) ?? DL

Scoob99

iTrader: (1)

Good Idea David, but I don't think this would have worked this time, 100mph train, god knows what it weighs, against a car, would take a fair way to stop, But saying that the fatalites may not have been so high, Does anyone know if the driver survived? My heart goes out to the families who have lost loved ones
Cheers
Colin

_Meridian_

iTrader: (1)

Why the train driver? It's the car/van driver who's the idiot, and they're the one most able to avoid a collision. The train driver would effectively have to drive at the whim of stupid drivers. Most times only the vehicle driver gets killed, but sadly they sometimes take someone with them, like here. And it takes a lot less than ten seconds to cross, since you have to be going at speed to weave through. I believe that even full barriers were deemed too expensive at every crossing.


M

David Lock

Agreed it's the car driver/s that are the ones at usually at fault but in this case the poor bloody train driver and passengers were killed. Say he had received a signal say 1/2 mile away that something was amiss then I guess he could have reduced speed significantly and hopefully avoided such carnage. It's not always death wish drivers - it could be farm animals or Aunty Maude who has stalled her Metro midway across. The 10 seconds was just by way of example. I often see kids with bikes at my local level crossing dodge around the barriers with a big grin..... DL

StickyMicky

wtf with all the 10 second system stuff??????

make barriers you can drive around


its not rocket science is it

MooseRacer

or even better, make barriers you can't drive around

StickyMicky

oo what happend to my T

Henrik

iTrader: (5)

I don't know if the barriers work the same here as in sweden, but the swedish ones are actually designed to break easily, so that if you get stuck mid way with a dead engine, say, you can drive out of the barriers by putting the car in gear and 'jumping' forward with the starter motor.


So, really, even if the barriers were double sided, it wouldn't make any difference for someone trying to commit suicide etc (as they could just drive through the barriers). However, I'm not saying this is the case in this instance.

Tiggs

or......dont bother. What a joke, if someone wants to kill themselves they will.

how many people die on crossings?

this is just a few dead in return for having fast trains that can whizz around at high speed. If we want tolive ina modern age then sometimes ppl will get killed by things other than flood and lightening. until that number of dead is larger i think we can leave crossings alone!......hardly an epedemic!

David Lock

Agreed which I suppose is why there there isn't a fence at Beachy Head (or is there?) but if you can reduce death cost effectively then why is it a joke? It was just a suggestion ffs. DL

Chip

Remember as well that on average 10 people a day die on our roads. Do we ban cars because of this? No we dont as it's accepted as part of what goes on in everyday life yet year after year 1000's of people are killed or seriously injured and we do nothing about it.

Train crashes are always made out to be worse as they usually kill or injure more than one or two people but are thank goodness very few and far between. Ive no doubt we'll have calls now for a multi-million pound public enquiry and if we're really unlucky we might even have to endure Prescott or Darling being seen on TV news visiting the site of the accident.

Chip.

ChrisB

Well said Chip.

Having seen pictures this morning on the almost blanket news coverage, this incident shows the quality of the design and engineering that went into the HST.

Leslie

Some years ago I got stuck on a crossing with a failure in the car. The lights were flashing for an approaching train so things were fraught to say the least! I managed to get the car mobile again and was able to drive off the crossing in time. The interesting thing was that the gates remained open to allow me to drive off and as soon as I was off the gates closed and the train went by. The was no one manning the crossing which was fully automatic. So there must have been a warning system that the car was on the crossing.

Very sorry for the driver and the passengers who were killed.

Les

scoob_babe

anyone see Carol Vorderman spouting rubbish on Breakfast with Frost this morning?? Going on about there being a major train crash every year and how something should be done - Paddingon, Selby, Potters Bar and now this....Er I thought Selby was due to some idiot falling asleep and falling off a bridge rather than it being the rail company's fault. More people die in bed than anywhere else - public inquiry anyone?????????