Why do so many people die on level (train) crossings?

Christian_C

Christian_C

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Stoke, UK
GTP_Christian_C
Ok, I know a lot of people try and make it across the tracks when they know a train is coming but seriously after the fact that so many people die from trying to do it, why do people still do it? It's just plain stupid.

I've just seen on the news that another person (a child also) has died on a level crossing, Now I can understand children trying to make it across because they are naive but where were the parents when this happened?

Thoughts on this anyone?
 
It's modern Darwinism.

They usually only have barriers covering half the road on opposite sides. So if you want to drive around them it's perfectley possible, but extremely idiotic. Some people still do, and sadly they occasionly then tend to take innocent lives with them.
 
Some people can't be bothered waiting a few minutes to get wherever they're going. Simple as that, really. (statement also applies to red-light runners)

What's more important, getting to *somewhere* a few minutes earlier, or your life? Obviously these people chose the former. =/
 
They keep doing it because they think they'll make it. The same reason morons drink & drive because they think they'll be fine, or the same reason idiots street race because they think they won't crash.

As Exige rightly said, modern Darwinism.
 
TGM Tiddy
...but seriously after the fact that so many people die from trying to do it, why do people still do it? It's just plain stupid.
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Why do people try heroin? Is there anybody ever in the history of the world that's had a manageable heroin habit (Keith Richards excepted)? Yet people still think it won't happen to them.

I live in a town that has a series of grade crossings right in the heart of it. There are even pedestrian underpasses that you can use (and no wino pee, either) yet at least once every couple of years, someone gets themselves greased crossing the tracks. It's not even a particularly high-speed line.
 
Well do you have spray or a 900hp Hemi that'll twist the chassis like a piece of licorice? :sly:
 
It's not just sheer recklessness... it's the complete inadequacy of their brains in dealing with figures and calculations as regards to the force / mass / acceleration computation.

Most people feel that a low-speed crash with another vehicle is survivable... and it generally is, given that neither vehicle tips the scales at over 2 tons...

What they generally forget is that a freight train weighs a few hundred tons... increasing the amount of energy it brings to a crash... and that a train can't brake in a few hundred feet... they don't understand that for an object that big... stopping is not an option.

The sad thing is... despite these deaths... the quality of math education in the modern world is still going down. Go Figure. Maybe Darwinian selection alone isn't strong enough... :lol:
 
A commerical plane weighs a few hundred tons, freight train with some load is in the thousands of tons!

I remember watching the a new passenger train a few years ago go on it's maiden voyage across Australia, we waited near a crossing further down the line and stood fairly close to the train line but not too close. It was suprising how fast the trains close in when they're going at full speed so I am not suprised people get caught out. I think often people are assuming that big heavy train is moving quite slowly but it doesn't take long for even a heavy frieght train to close in when heading directly for you at their full cruising speed.
 
MistaX, where art thou? This thread is bergin for you.
 
There was an edition of A&E's Investigative Reports devoted to this riddle. Perhaps it is because the train is limited to its line and can not (usually) deviate from it so people feel rather safe, whereas people can drive or walk wherever they like and feel they control the situation.

or... dumb people get themselves killed.
 
Jay
A commerical plane weighs a few hundred tons, freight train with some load is in the thousands of tons!

I remember watching the a new passenger train a few years ago go on it's maiden voyage across Australia, we waited near a crossing further down the line and stood fairly close to the train line but not too close. It was suprising how fast the trains close in when they're going at full speed so I am not suprised people get caught out. I think often people are assuming that big heavy train is moving quite slowly but it doesn't take long for even a heavy frieght train to close in when heading directly for you at their full cruising speed.
Click to expand...

I forgot how big your freight trains are... our passenger coaches are just a few cars long, never more than a dozen or so... last time I was in America, we had to stop at a crossing to let a freight train through.

I thought we would have to sleep the night there... those things are so damn looooong... :lol:
 
Well I have got a feeling this case is not like most others actually, which could be more alarming. You see the police are treating the death as unexplained. Also the news story say his family have been made aware. So they could have let him play out by himself, or he could have been with someone else, or he could of even been murdered. Lets wait and see before we judge this particular case. Here is a link to the story.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/cambridgeshire/8243018.stm

As for the general reason people ignore crossings, is that people are so impatient and think they can get away with doing it. It's probably the same sort of people who race, drink-drive, take drugs, etc. Some people actually enjoy taking risks with their lives aswell, they just don't realize/care that they are putting other peoples lives at stake with their idiotic actions. Add to all this the people who deliberately commit suicide on crossings and you start to see why there are so many level crossing accidents.

While there are so many level crossings with partial barriers and foot crossings without effective warning lights, there will always be deaths on level crossings. Though even if all the safety features were/are in place, given the chance some people will take a chance, it's just the way it is and sadly it always will be. Measures need to be taken to cut level crossings deaths, no doubt about it, just don't think you can stop them completely.
 
niky
I forgot how big your freight trains are... our passenger coaches are just a few cars long, never more than a dozen or so... last time I was in America, we had to stop at a crossing to let a freight train through.

I thought we would have to sleep the night there... those things are so damn looooong... :lol:
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Haha, yeah which is probably the reason people try and beat them.
 
Lack of patience + Lack of sense = Stupid, easily avoidable deaths. :ouch:

In that train vs robin video, it seems very dangerous and dumb to have a crossing right after a curve like that.
It also shows a danger of those crossings with lights but no barriers. Some people are so distracted and inattentive, they don't even notice the lights or the train.
 
ultrataco
In that train vs robin video, it seems very dangerous and dumb to have a crossing right after a curve like that.
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Why?

ultrataco
It also shows a danger of those crossings with lights but no barriers. Some people are so distracted and inattentive, they don't even notice the lights or the train.
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If someone can't see a 40 ton, 12 foot tall, 80 foot long tube of metal clipping along at 30mph, they won't see a light.
 
I feel so bad for the train conductors who have to put up with those idiots. I remember watching an interview with a subway train operator who was permanently traumatized after some guy decided to commit suicide by jumping in front of her train.
 
I remember seeing those videos before on the news when that guy gets his shoe taken off by the train, Yet I bet he thought it was "right awesome" and decided to go and do the same thing a week later.

Also I didn't know that death was been treated as suspicious, it certainly did seem a little odd but still who would purposely kill a 2 year old child?
 
TGM Tiddy
I remember seeing those videos before on the news when that guy gets his shoe taken off by the train, Yet I bet he thought it was "right awesome" and decided to go and do the same thing a week later.

Also I didn't know that death was been treated as suspicious, it certainly did seem a little odd but still who would purposely kill a 2 year old child?
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Jon Venables and Robert Thompson?
 
Famine
Why?



If someone can't see a 40 ton, 12 foot tall, 80 foot long tube of metal clipping along at 30mph, they won't see a light.
Click to expand...

I notice that he was an elderly man too, people like him who can't see a bloody train shouldn't be on the road. If they miss a train what chance do they have of seeing a child?
 
Watching those videos, I am wondering what is going through their mind. Does it go something like this?:
"I am going to make it...I am going to make it..!"
"Its just a piece of cake..like frogger but then again...I did suck at that game"
"Man, I am late to work"
" I wonder why those two lights are going off for?"
" that train is sooo slow!"
 
Duke
Why do people try heroin? Is there anybody ever in the history of the world that's had a manageable heroin habit (Keith Richards excepted)? Yet people still think it won't happen to them.
Click to expand...
Almost OT, but yes, one more example - Keith Code, author of Twist of the Wrist I + II and Soft Science of Road Racing... (Amongst others)
 

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