"The Checkered Flag" (checkeredflagblog)
10/01/2015 at 11:05 • Filed to: None
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"The Checkered Flag" (checkeredflagblog)
10/01/2015 at 11:05 • Filed to: None | 1
| 6 |
Next time you’re at a red light, especially at night when its easier to see the right-angled signals light up, take notice the timing of the lights. There’s usually a two-second delay between the last light to turn red and the next turning green. There’s a small buffer zone for drivers who are close to running the red. That doesn’t mean when the light turns green, or in this case, the train crossing barrier comes up, that you shouldn’t look for oncoming traffic.
In China, where things aren’t necessarily known for working well all of the time, crossing barriers at a train pass in Tarok failed and sent a signal to let the gates UP when the train was approaching.
Luckily, the 19-year-old student driving the car was unscathed but only thanks to a few inches to spare between what was left of her car from the train acting as a cheese grader.
Come on people! Have some common sense to look where you are going! Commenters may say that the train was coming around a turn or was hard to see from her perspective. I don’t think the train would be going as fast as it did in that case, but we honestly don’t know for sure.
Folks, there’s plenty of these cases happening in the U.S. as well, in NY alone! Look before you cross....anything.
For more details:
Justin Hughes
> The Checkered Flag
10/01/2015 at 11:13 |
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I once found myself crossing railroad tracks right in front of a (fortunately slow moving) train when the signals weren’t working. Even worse, the crossing was pretty much blind, so I couldn’t even see the train until I was already crossing the tracks. Scary.
StingrayJake
> The Checkered Flag
10/01/2015 at 11:24 |
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Should be a nice lawsuit... or it would be in the U.S.
Sam
> The Checkered Flag
10/01/2015 at 11:26 |
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The signals at one of the tracks near my house were broken and stuck in the DOWN position. There is something very unnerving about driving around the arms.
Berang
> The Checkered Flag
10/01/2015 at 11:34 |
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These days with cars being insulated from outside noises so well I could imagine somebody with the radio on, or just talking to a passenger being unable to hear a train coming.
I also didn’t hear the train blowing its horn while approaching the crossing, which is mandatory in the U.S. but apparently not in China?
Svart Smart, traded in his Smart
> Sam
10/01/2015 at 12:37 |
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That happened to me once at a crossing in Auburn, Wash., USA. The gates were stuck in the down position, and so cars lined up on each side of the crossing were taking turns to weave around the lowered arms. Except when it was my turn, I wasn’t going to take the chance (what if a train really did come through?), so I took a couple extra seconds to make a Y-turn and go back the way I’d come. At least one driver honked and yelled at me, and I was just like, ¯\_()_/¯.
haveacarortwoorthree2
> The Checkered Flag
10/01/2015 at 12:54 |
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Be honest. When the light changes (or in this case, when the gates go up), and the car in front of you proceeds through the intersection without incident, how many of you actually look both ways before going? I do if I am the first one in line, but that minivan in front of her went first. Now, the noise would be an indication that something bad was going to happen, but she may have been listening to the radio with her windows up, in which case the noise might not have been loud enough to tip her off until it was too late.