This is very true. It is becoming more common to use 4 actual gate arms to fully block vehicles, but many (most?) crossings only block the right-side lane on each side of the crossing, which means cars can do a diagonal maneuver to go around the gate arms. I’m guessing this is probably what is happening in many of these cases.
I once was a few blocks away when someone jumped in front of a train. They weren’t very mentally stable and had been in a downward spiral for a while. People I knew (who knew the person better than I did) said they just declared they were going to do it, marched right up to the tracks, and did it.
The length of the train meant that about a half-mile length through town was completely obstructed for several hours while cleanup and paperwork were done, and there was a milling crowd around the 50-foot-or-so perimeter. I caught a glimpse of a bodybag but people who were closer said there really wasn’t much left of the body.
I live near a crossing that has very long shipping container trains running through it pretty frequently, I see someone race the train through the barrier about once a month. Never done it myself, I know for a fact that if I did my car would die right on the tracks.
it’s the latter
but also obviously American crossing gates suck as well
This is very true. It is becoming more common to use 4 actual gate arms to fully block vehicles, but many (most?) crossings only block the right-side lane on each side of the crossing, which means cars can do a diagonal maneuver to go around the gate arms. I’m guessing this is probably what is happening in many of these cases.
When I used to ride CalTrain
CW: suicide
most of the fatalities were stressed high school kids jumping in front of the train on purpose
I expect something like that also occasionally happens with Brightline.
per the COC thread that CW should be for suicide rather than self-harm as those are different things and non-suicidal self-harm is common
edited
What a fucking awful way to die. I can’t imagine choosing to go like that.
It’s probably very quick but scary for a couple of seconds. Those poor fucking engineers on the other hand.
CW- personal experience involving exactly this
I once was a few blocks away when someone jumped in front of a train. They weren’t very mentally stable and had been in a downward spiral for a while. People I knew (who knew the person better than I did) said they just declared they were going to do it, marched right up to the tracks, and did it.
The length of the train meant that about a half-mile length through town was completely obstructed for several hours while cleanup and paperwork were done, and there was a milling crowd around the 50-foot-or-so perimeter. I caught a glimpse of a bodybag but people who were closer said there really wasn’t much left of the body.
I live near a crossing that has very long shipping container trains running through it pretty frequently, I see someone race the train through the barrier about once a month. Never done it myself, I know for a fact that if I did my car would die right on the tracks.