level crossing near miss

[saaby93]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-22490098
Have a look at the shadow on the bronze car at the end to judge the position of the sun.
As the beginning as it passes through the tree shadow do you think the sunlight might have been masking the crossing lights?

[steve j]

Couldn`t the driver see the train ? Also no gates or barrier would make me very careful.

[Simpo Two]

Never mind that, it's asking for trouble. Once upon a time level crossings had gates. Drivers sees gates across road, stops.

Then they decide gates are a bit old school and cost money, so they take them away. Voila, accidents. What did they expect?

Idiots.

[rs1952]

Simpo Two said:

Never mind that, it's asking for trouble. Once upon a time level crossings had gates. Drivers sees gates across road, stops.

Then they decide gates are a bit old school and cost money, so they take them away. Voila, accidents. What did they expect?

Idiots.

It wasn't the gates that costed the money, it was the crossing keepers.

[saaby93]

steve j said:

Couldn`t the driver see the train ? Also no gates or barrier would make me very careful.

They did see the train. See the way they swerved over the DWLs
Look at the blinking red lights from both camera angles too

[Simpo Two]

rs1952 said:

It wasn't the gates that costed the money, it was the crossing keepers.

I thought the gates went up and down automatically and were monitored by CCTV from somewhere else?


'We're sorry Mrs Miggins and her family were killed but we do save £25K a year, which is more important'.

Risk/reward ratio.

[rs1952]

Simpo Two said:

rs1952 said:

It wasn't the gates that costed the money, it was the crossing keepers.

I thought the gates went up and down automatically and were monitored by CCTV from somewhere else?


'We're sorry Mrs Miggins and her family were killed but we do save £25K a year, which is more important'.

Risk/reward ratio.

That's what happens these days, but in days gone by crossing gates were either manually operated by a crossing keeper or automatically operated from the adjacent, or at least nearby, signal box where the signalman could physically see what was going on.

It was part of the "rationalisation" in the 1960s when these gates began to be replaced by half-barriers. The logic then was to use half-barriers so that should anybody be actually on the crossing when the gates were closing they had a means of escape.

The fact that idiots would drive around them to avoid a few minutes delay, and by doing so often find out first-hand whether there was life after death, was I suspect not even considered.

Never overestimate the intelligence of the man in the street ...

[Nickyboy]

saaby93 said:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-22490098
Have a look at the shadow on the bronze car at the end to judge the position of the sun.
As the beginning as it passes through the tree shadow do you think the sunlight might have been masking the crossing lights?

No, looking at street View, the crossing is visible from a long way off. Only an idiot would miss it. Most likely it was a local knowing the train would be stopped at the station

[tight5]

Simpo Two said:

Once upon a time level crossings had gates.

people used to live in caves .
time moves on , deal with it !

Simpo Two said:

Then they decide gates are a bit old school and cost money, so they take them away.

that's not really true , is it ?

Simpo Two said:

What did they expect?

drivers to obey road laws and stop at the red lights ?

Simpo Two said:

I thought the gates went up and down automatically and were monitored by CCTV from somewhere else?

there are a few types of crossing , one of which is a CCTV .

Network Rail do a survey of each crossing to see how much it is used and use that info to see what type of crossing to install .

[MajorProblem]

You can't save people from themselves.

There could be many reasons for that crossing being an open one. A lot of crossing huts with gates were converted with grants given from Europe and it all happened with a pretty modular installs with the vast majority being auto open crossings or autos halves. It's like anything, you get a spec to work to and you are going to keep it to minimum guidelines your not going to create massive costs doing what you think is best. Work is completed to what the ministry of transport require.

How much the crossing is used is only part of the deciding factor for the type of crossing to be fitted, in fact if its a road and not a rough track chances are it will be full barriers with CCTV / radar detection that's if it cant be closed altogether.

[Richjam]

Where I live a train went though a redlight and crossed the crossing with the gates up. Luckily no one was hurt but a mother crossing with a push chair had a very near miss. You can get idiots driving trains as well as cars.

[MajorProblem]

Richjam said:

Where I live a train went though a redlight and crossed the crossing with the gates up. Luckily no one was hurt but a mother crossing with a push chair had a very near miss. You can get idiots driving trains as well as cars.

As a minimum though the red lights and sirens will come straight on. Also very few half barriers or open crossings have signal protection.

If the driver spadded the crossing protecting signal then it should be at least 200 yrds from the crossing so sound like he fked up royally not just out judged braking.