Stupidity caught on film

[NicTrain35]

It was a cloudy Sunday afternoon and I was at home with nothing to do. I decided to head over to Lockport to film the inbound Texas Eagle. Not only did I catch the train, but I also caught some stupidity. From the video, you can tell that the gates are down, cars are ignoring the warnings, and people are also ignoring the warnings. The train had to have been doing every bit of 79 MPH. Just think what would happen if any of those people got their foot stuck in the tracks.

http://media.putfile.com/HIGHBALL

[AmtrakFan]

Doesn't surprise me one bit at all. People can wait 2 Min at a Traffic light but they can't wait 30 Seconds for an Amtrak. Something is wrong here.

[wigwagfan]

Originally Posted by AmtrakFan

Doesn't surprise me one bit at all. People can wait 2 Min at a Traffic light but they can't wait 30 Seconds for an Amtrak. Something is wrong here.

You obiviously haven't been in Portland, Oregon! When the lights turn red, that means two-to-five more cars, before the traffic with the green light can go. Actually there have not been too many people driving around the gates in Oregon (either reported in media or visually observed); we have enough problems with drunks, mentally-ill persons, and people who cherish their $300 iPods walking down the tracks thinking that a couple of $3M locomotives won't damage their collection of MP3s.

I still wish I has been able to photograph the full-size SCHOOL BUS in Seattle, with the gate propped up against the side of the bus - and the bus is blocking both tracks of the BNSF mainline north of the downtown tunnel. (I was on the Waterfront Streetcar, which is the third, westernmost track, and also connected to the same grade crossings, although the timing for the gates is different than that of the BNSF (Amtrak) tracks.)

[MakeChooChooGoNow]

I know stupidity along the tracks all too well...

I was running on the Q187 (Jacksonville to Tampa) this morning when we struck a transient at Lake Alfred (MP A834.7 to be exact)

Apparantly, he was intoxicated and decided to take a nap while waiting for a train, using the rails as a pillow and footrest, respectively. Wearing dark clothing didn't help him either, and when you see what appears to be a garbage bag -- only to transform into a sleeping drunk, it's already too late. It turned out to be quite a mess, if you know what I mean.

Thankfully, the engine download cleared me of any wrongdoing, and we were free to go home...almost fifteen hours after going on duty.

It has been a long day to say the least

[JeffShultz]

That actually wasn't as bad as some I've seen... and I'd say the train was likely doing 40-ish, not 79mph.

But people can be dumb, that's for sure.

[NicTrain35]

The reason it looks like it's doing 40-ish is because I was zoomed 380mm when taking the video. That makes it look like it's going a LOT slower.

[MP36er]

Yesterday at Westmont, IL, a westbound manifest going about 40MPH was coming and apparently the engineer saw this kid riding his bike pretty fast down the platform and suspected what he would do, so the engineer started doing a crossing sequence with the horn. The kid on the bike is going the same way as the train, and rides across the pedestrian crossing about 200 feet in front of the train.

[ccaranna]

Though this doesn't have anything to do with the stupidity, that horn blowing is music to my ears. Gotta love the doppler effect.

[ssw9662]

Reminds me of something I saw last year. Four or five teenagers were carrying skateboards across the tracks in front of a train moving at about 40 MPH. The last one dropped his skateboard before crossing the tracks, then picked it up and crossed the tracks four seconds before the train.

[Northwest Railfan]

Originally Posted by wigwagfan

You obiviously haven't been in Portland, Oregon! When the lights turn red, that means two-to-five more cars, before the traffic with the green light can go. Actually there have not been too many people driving around the gates in Oregon (either reported in media or visually observed); we have enough problems with drunks, mentally-ill persons, and people who cherish their $300 iPods walking down the tracks thinking that a couple of $3M locomotives won't damage their collection of MP3s.

I still wish I has been able to photograph the full-size SCHOOL BUS in Seattle, with the gate propped up against the side of the bus - and the bus is blocking both tracks of the BNSF mainline north of the downtown tunnel. (I was on the Waterfront Streetcar, which is the third, westernmost track, and also connected to the same grade crossings, although the timing for the gates is different than that of the BNSF (Amtrak) tracks.)

You are so right. I hate it when were waiting for a green light and five cars go. I wish people would report them. It's glad we don't have any driving around the gates here in the Rose City. Although once I was chasing the 700/4449 doubleheader last July, and a car crossed the tracks when the train was just about 20 ft. ( luckly it was going only 10 mph.) away from the tracks. The weird thing is that the crossing didn't start coming down until the train was at least 10 ft. from the crossing. I HATE IT! BNSF, FIX THOSE CROSSINGS!