Another US crossing crash

[AndrewE]

the (first) driver not at fault for a change...

Moment SUV driver narrowly escapes train collision

The driver managed to flee with seconds to spare after their vehicle was pushed on to a train track in Utah.

www.bbc.com

Getting rear-ended onto a crossing would be a nightmare, I'm glad I hardly ever drive over one!

 

[Gag Halfrunt]

The barriers came down after the car was rear-ended. The driver reversed instead of driving across the crossing, and was stopped by the barrier.

A pickup truck rear-ended an SUV in Layton, Utah, sending the large car onto a set of railroad tracks with a train headed its way.

And fascinating footage released by the Utah Transit Authority shows what happened next. In a nutshell: 1) Driver for some reason backs up, rather than continuing forward to safer ground; 2) Driver gets stuck; 3) Driver jumps out of car seconds before the train demolishes the front passenger side of the SUV.

See video of the collision from several different angles below, posted by Fox 13 Utah. One of the clips was shot from a train cam, in which you can hear someone saying, "Oh, come on!" right before impact.

Fortunately, according to KSL, nobody was injured. The FrontRunner train, on the other hand, suffered $100,000 in damages.

Watch: Rear-ended SUV is shoved onto Utah tracks as train is coming — driver jumps out just in time (video)

Watch: Rear-ended SUV is shoved onto Utah tracks as train is coming — driver dashes out just in time (video)

boingboing.net

 

[AndrewE]

The barriers came down after the car was rear-ended. The driver reversed instead of driving across the crossing, and was stopped by the barrier.

Watch: Rear-ended SUV is shoved onto Utah tracks as train is coming — driver jumps out just in time (video)

Watch: Rear-ended SUV is shoved onto Utah tracks as train is coming — driver dashes out just in time (video)

boingboing.net

not if you lookat the second half of the video on the bbc. The front car was stopped - or stopping (12 secs), but was rear-ended under the dropping barrier, obviously decided he couldn't get out of the other side in time and reversed but was afraid to shunt the second car back far enough.

 

[Gag Halfrunt]

I should have made clear that after being pushed on to the crossing the driver reversed into the barrier instead of driving to the other side.

 

[66701GBRF]

The barriers came down after the car was rear-ended. The driver reversed instead of driving across the crossing, and was stopped by the barrier.

The barrier didn't stop the driver, the driver stopped themselves. There is no reason the driver couldn't have continued to reverse through the barrier.

 

[styles]

The barrier didn't stop the driver, the driver stopped themselves. There is no reason the driver couldn't have continued to reverse through the barrier.

Given they tried to reverse then ended up stopping, I wouldn't rule out some mechanical misfunction preventing them continuing to reverse. The driver made an effort to reverse at least, then had the sense to leave the vehicle in time, so I think it's likely the car just wouldn't move for some reason.

 

[Meerkat]

Given they tried to reverse then ended up stopping, I wouldn't rule out some mechanical misfunction preventing them continuing to reverse. The driver made an effort to reverse at least, then had the sense to leave the vehicle in time, so I think it's likely the car just wouldn't move for some reason.

I wondered if the barrier offered resistance and they gave up. How strong are the barriers against twisting off?

 

[styles]

I wondered if the barrier offered resistance and they gave up. How strong are the barriers against twisting off?

Aye I wondered that as well. But from the video it looks like they stopped after hitting the barrier, then made a second shunt back which was very successful, then stopped again.

I imagine the driving force of a ~2T SUV would overpower one of those crossing barriers quite easily. In fact I'd go as far as suggesting a human could push one out of the way if needed (albeit not break it completely).

Maybe the driver was worried about damaging their car or the barrier or something?

 

[AndrewE]

Aye I wondered that as well. But from the video it looks like they stopped after hitting the barrier, then made a second shunt back which was very successful, then stopped again.

I imagine the driving force of a ~2T SUV would overpower one of those crossing barriers quite easily. In fact I'd go as far as suggesting a human could push one out of the way if needed (albeit not break it completely).

Maybe the driver was worried about damaging their car or the barrier or something?

I too wondered if he was concerned about either doing more damage to his rear end than the shunt had already caused, or was afraid of being sued by the truck driver if he hit it again...
could still be that the bumps immobilised the front car.

 

[styles]

I too wondered if he was concerned about either doing more damage to his rear end than the shunt had already caused, or was afraid of being sued by the truck driver if he hit it again...
could still be that the bumps immobilised the front car.

That's an interesting thought regarding the truck behind.

Let's say I've got myself into this position. Is it better to reverse back believing I will damage a pickup truck behind me, or leave my car to be wiped out by a train?

I mean I know what the answer to that should be, but in a moment of panic, and if you're in an SUV unable to see that your front bumper is near the rail tracks? I can see how a poor decision could be made.

 

[perkin]

Most modern cars apply the brakes after an impact in order to reduce the likelihood of the car rolling and causing further collisions, so entirely likely that prevented driving forwards and possibly caused additional resistance reversing.

Also looked like quite a decent initial shunt from a large heavy duty pickup which caused a fair bit of damage, so the driver was likely initially disorientated/panicked (I'm assuming most of the posters who think the car driver should do nothing but act in a cool, calm manner have never been involved in such an event) - they absolutely did the right thing in getting out and to safety imho

 

[Meerkat]

It’s still weird that they had space to reverse into and gave up…..unless the barrier was offering enough resistance the driver decided it wasn’t going to work before the train arrived.