Don’t Raise the Bridge, Lower the Water!

Grade crossing accidents have been the subject of several previous blogs in which I’ve pointed out that reports of these incidents always seem to be written from a “train smashes car” point of view.

A few days ago, an Amtrak train hit a car that was caught between gates at a grade crossing in Durham, North Carolina. A woman was injured and her two kids were killed.

Tragic? Of course. But the focus of the news story was on the speed of the train, which was traveling 74 miles-per-hour in a 79 mph zone. Local residents, prompted by the TV reporter, all agreed that the speed limit for trains passing through grade crossings should be reduced.

Would the result have been any different if the train had hit the car at 60 mph instead of 74? Of course not!

An Amtrak engineer once told me that a train hitting a car would be equivalent to your family car running over a mailbox. How’s that for a graphic comparison!

There is only one cause of this accident: the woman foolishly went around the gate and was caught on the tracks.

Oh … by the way … neither of the two kids was belted.

Slower trains? How about smarter drivers.