Near Miss??

[mike57]

Coming out of York towards Scarborough recently I saw a car on the rail side of the level crossing barriers. It was clear of the tracks, at an odd angle almost 90 degrees to the direction of the road. Our train was running close to line speed for that section I would guess, and no obvious braking. As far as I could tell it wasnt any sort of Network Rail or similar vehicle. I can only assume it had broken down.

I am not going to say when or which crossing, there are several, and everything might have been under control, but did seem a little strange. I dont want to start a witch hunt.

 

[skyhigh]

I dont want to start a witch hunt.

There's not really much point posting on here then.

If the train didn't slow then the driver had probably been told what was happening.

Anything else will be purely speculation.

 

[mike57]

There's not really much point posting on here then.

I was more interested in what the general approach is to these sort of situations, there is no doubt "If this happens you will do this" rule, as whilst not frequent it is certainly a credible scenario, what ever the original cause was.

Car driver error being the most likely, awareness of level crossings seems to be very poor amongst some drivers, I witnessed a car stop in the middle of the track at Muston crossing for no obvious reason and the driver seemed oblivious to the hooting from other motorists and finally pulled off again and continued on his journey after what seemed like an age but was probably only 10-15 secs. Wife was driving and had stopped behind the line with idiot driver blocking our side of the road in front on the crossing. I was preparing to bale and ring the signalman. And no I didnt consider going forward on foot and banging on the window even although the barriers were still up, mainly because I knew a train was due shortly.

 

[87electric]

Being pedantic, it was a near hit. It was a miss. Sorry, but that has always grinded me.

 

[ComUtoR]

There's not really much point posting on here then.

I'd agree but purely from the point you raise below.

Anything else will be purely speculation.

Speculation never helps. Obfuscting the facts may seem like helping, and I appreciate it, but it leads to wild speculation. I just sat through a briefing about the Red/Yellow button and when to use it. What does the OP wish to know ? Rules and Regs ? Driver opinion ? Historical incident discussion ? or play the what if game ?

Being pedantic, it was a near hit. It was a miss. Sorry, but that has always grinded me.

This entire debate is very very [expletive] It's not a 'near hit' and is, and has been, always considered to be a 'near miss'. I appreciate the wording and a rose by any other name etc. but if you have experienced a body hitting your windscreen and shattering it into a million pieces or bifurcating someone or something at speed, or simply missing obliterating a person by a cats whisker; I don't feel playing pointless semantics purely to score internet points is worthy of discussion.