When It’s Train vs. Car, the Train Always Wins.

I’m always amazed when I read about drivers who are killed or injured in grade crossing incidents. What the hell were they thinking? The gates are down; the lights are flashing; the bells are clanging … and something inside their little pea-brains says, “Go ahead! You can make it!”

Sometimes they do.

And sometimes they don’t. This guy was lucky. That used to be a full-sized sedan and according to the cops who investigated this incident, he would never have survived in a smaller vehicle.

Brings to mind a remark by an Amtrak engineer who told me that his locomotive hitting an automobile would be equivalent to your family car running over a mailbox. Yet people still keep trying to beat the train.

By the way, the driver of the car in this photo? According to the cops, alcohol was “a factor”.

And it was 6:00 in the morning.