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.
School buses are required to stop at the crossing, and open the door to listen for the trains.
The trains are required to blow their whistles (except we have some intersections now where they trains don’t late at night, but they are labelled with signs so motoroists know to be extra careful.
I do fly across tracks, but I always glance both ways, and I’m pretty sure I’d notice a train barreling down. Of course, that assumes a good sight line.
In my opinion, it should be impossible to shut down the gate power without lowering the gates. That would be a pain for motorists, but then the people working on the tracks would have to go manually raise the gates, which would make it clear to them that they had shut off the gates.
There should also be an alarm when the gates are off. Maybe even a blinking light set powered by batteries, in case there is a general power failure.
AnAmericanMother wrote:
I live a block from a crossing on the CSX mainline. We go back and forth over it many times daily.