Oh man.
Oh my.
This almost always means that a train is not coming...almost...
Katie Lunn, age 26
Dance Instructor
Dance Ensemble Company Manager
Katie is a graduate of Oklahoma City University where she recieved her degree in dance management. She has danced for the Ameican Spirit Dance Company as well as the Oklahoma City University Pep Dancers. Katie has also danced professionally, as well as choreographed, for the Oklahoma City Yard Dawgz Arena Football Dance Team. Katie has also been blessed with many opportunities to hold management positions, such as assistant stage manager and assistant childrens director, for several Oklahoma City University's American Spirit Dance Company's performances. Katie is extremely excited that she is joining the SPA staff and is blessed to have yet another wonderful opportunity to share her love of dance.
Accident scene
This is one that will certainly never go to court, and they’ll just hand her family over a truck full of cash.
Yes Folks,
I slow down at RR Tracks and look both ways. To those that insist at flying across RR tracks... Don’t play with trains....
Always assume there could be a faulty RR switch, etc...
It is like something from Ayn Rand ... incompetence rewarded leads to innocents’ death.
We all roll our windows down (even in the rain) and listen for the train. We look both ways before crossing.
Even leaving aside obvious negligence like this case, equipment fails and malfunctions.
The railroad is very sensitive about this crossing because it's a busy one on a main drag into the city. They have crews out several times a week checking the gates here, and you'll often see a CSX truck parked at the crossing just keeping an eye on things.
Stuff STILL goes wrong. They have an 800 number posted on the gates to call in case of a malfunction. I call it about once every month or so - gates stuck down or (worse) stuck open with lights flashing and bells ringing. After an hour or so everybody just ignores the lights and bells. The first thing CSX does in that case is put a go-slow order on all the trains.
Sooner or later somebody's going to get hit, it's been since the late 80s when somebody jumped the gate at the next crossing 2 miles up the line . . . but we had a close call about 2 years ago. Go slow order saved the day.
A few years ago I was traveling down a county road that run parallel to a RR track.
I noticed someone working on the box near the tracks while approaching a intersection with a green light and the green light turned red without warning. No yellow, no 3 second wait, nothing. The lady in front slammed on the brakes but the car behind her slammed into her. I managed to only tap the lady in front of me by screaming to a stop.
I looked up after the crash and both lights were now green both ways.
About 10 seconds later the lights seemed to go back into a normal cycle and the assclown working on the RR lights drove off.
I was ticketed and the LEO refused to believe someone was screwing with the lights. AT my court hearing the judge checked the logs for the local maintenance crews and tossed my ticket, still cost me $500.00 in a deducible to fix my car