RailRoadFan.com

A Father and his 4- year old child were injured after they drove in the path of Amtrak train 371 this morning and were struck. They were flown by helicopter to the hospital.
I'll post links to a story at a later time.

Where at?

sxbud138 wrote:Where at?

OOPS! I forgot to say where!

Kerlikowske Rd. west of Coloma, MI.

sadly, just another day of railroading

Doktor No wrote:The CSX newswire says the crossing has lights and gates. TV 8 and TV3 says weither there were no gates or on 3 a witness says she didn't see any lights. I remember where this is but I will assume that the lights/gates are new this year.

And it was reported that the State Police verified that the lights were working "normally" per the in-cab camera. Of course, witnesses will see what they want to see. You know, that big bad train appeared out of nowhere with zero warning and attacked that car.

J T wrote: You know, that big bad train appeared out of nowhere with zero warning and attacked that car.

If I could steer a train, there isn't a canadian goose alive that I wouldn't try to rid the world of....

Here's a link. I googled this and some stories say it was a dad and his 4 yr old. I heard it was a woman.
http://www.wndu.com/home/headlines/Bent ... 11041.html
http://www.wsbt.com/news/wsbt-mother-ch ... 0732.story
The crossing has had lights for a long time, ever since I can remember (20 years or more)..but no gates.

Buster Manning wrote:

J T wrote: You know, that big bad train appeared out of nowhere with zero warning and attacked that car.

If I could steer a train, there isn't a canadian goose alive that I wouldn't try to rid the world of....

And 99.9% of the world would be cheering you on Amazing those stupid things are protected

"According to our sister station, WOOD-TV, in Grand Rapids, the car drove through the railroad intersection right when a train started to cross. The intersection has flashing lights, but no cross bar."

"Right when a train started to cross"? This is possibly the worst constructed sentence ever. Also, the lack of gates s not the cause for this accident. I don't understand why the media doesn't simply report that the car "failed to yield and was driven into the path of an oncoming train". It's a tragic accident but there's no reason to not educate the public about the risk.

Sounds like tons of money needs to be spent for gates at every single crossing. Fines levied on people who don't yield would be a good place to start. And God help Coloma if they have a horn ban...

Jochs wrote:Here's a link. I googled this and some stories say it was a dad and his 4 yr old. I heard it was a woman.

See, witnesses can't even get that part of it right! Not surprising someone said the flashers weren't working.

Tom wrote: "Right when a train started to cross"? This is possibly the worst constructed sentence ever. Also, the lack of gates is not the cause for this accident. I don't understand why the media doesn't simply report that the car "failed to yield and was driven into the path of an oncoming train". It's a tragic accident but there's no reason to not educate the public about the risk.

Agree 100%, Tom. Sometimes it's more appealing for them to try to find other excuses for accidents like this instead of reporting the obvious.

AARR wrote:

Buster Manning wrote:

J T wrote: You know, that big bad train appeared out of nowhere with zero warning and attacked that car.

If I could steer a train, there isn't a canadian goose alive that I wouldn't try to rid the world of....

And 99.9% of the world would be cheering you on Amazing those stupid things are protected

... including Capt. Sully who's aircraft was hit by a flock of Canadian Geese, rendering both of his jet's engines dead, causing him to safely land in the Hudson River....

All just part of the dumbing down of america. Move along now.

Here's another link:
http://www.wsbt.com/news/wsbt-mother-ch ... 0732.story
Photos by WSBT's Mark Parren:
http://www.wsbt.com/news/wsbt-photos-ch ... otogallery
There are two comments, one a google ad and one from Jon Brown who is apparently accusing the railroad of the accident and trying to cover up evidence by not releasing videos from Amtrak, not giving drug tests to the crew, not releasing info about whether the signals were working, and that the video shows the signals working when the train is a thousand feet away, and not when it is at the crossing.
I work near there, and it is open farmland, and traveling from the north, there is a farm on the right, but if the signals WERE working when the train was 1000 ft. away, they would have been able to see the approaching train, as they would have been past the farm.
My photos of the train can be seen here, as well as the crossing where it happened
viewtopic.php?f=20&t=26097

So I am guessing it was actually a father and child, rather than mother and child were were flown to the hospital.

The crew needs to be tested for drugs? Bahahahahahaha!

There are only two people who need to be tested for drugs: the driver of the car and Jon Brown.

J T wrote:The create(sic) needs to be tested for drugs? Bahahahahahaha!

There are only two people who need to be tested for drugs: the driver of the car and Jon Brown.

+10000000000000000000000000 J T!

J T wrote:The create needs to be tested for drugs? Bahahahahahaha!

There are only two people who need to be tested for drugs: the driver of the car and Jon Brown.

It has been scientifically proven that people can be dumber than a bag of rocks...

You're only as dumb as you let them make you. Just refuse, continue to question and always demand an answer.

Unfortunately, dumb people don't know they are dumb.

Jochs wrote:

J T wrote:The create(sic) needs to be tested for drugs? Bahahahahahaha!

There are only two people who need to be tested for drugs: the driver of the car and Jon Brown.

+10000000000000000000000000 J T![

Son of a...stupid auto correct on my phone. I didn't even notice it had changed "crew" to "create."

Isn't the drug screen FRA mandated after a crash\wreck?

From what I heard on the scanner, the driver of the car should be tested. The engineer had thrown the train into emergency when he saw two cars racing toward the crossing with no intention of stopping, and unfortunately got the second one.
I would think if the engineer saw the cars coming, the driver of the cars most likely knew the train was coming and were trying to get across the crossing first.