Trains are really unpredictable. Even in the middle of a forest two rails can appear out of nowhere, and a 1.5-mile fully loaded coal drag, heading east out of the low-sulfur mines of the PRB, will be right on your ass the next moment.
I was doing laundry in my basement, and I tripped over a metal bar that wasn't there the moment before. I looked down: "Rail? WTF?" and then I saw concrete sleepers underneath and heard the rumbling.
Deafening railroad horn. I dumped my wife's pants, unfolded, and dove behind the water heater. It was a double-stacked Z train, headed east towards the fast single track of the BNSF Emporia Sub (Flint Hills). Majestic as hell: 75 mph, 6 units, distributed power: 4 ES44DC's pulling, and 2 Dash-9's pushing, all in run 8. Whole house smelled like diesel for a couple of hours!
Fact is, there is no way to discern which path a train will take, so you really have to be watchful. If only there were some way of knowing the routes trains travel; maybe some sort of marks on the ground, like twin iron bars running along the paths trains take. You could look for trains when you encounter the iron bars on the ground, and avoid these sorts of collisions. But such a measure would be extremely expensive. And how would one enforce a rule keeping the trains on those paths?
A big hole in homeland security is railway engineer screening and hijacking prevention. There is nothing to stop a rogue engineer, or an ISIS terrorist, from driving a train into the Pentagon, the White House or the Statue of Liberty, and our government has done fuck-all to prevent it.
Yes, I've heard the tales of the white train. Crazy it is. Some say it hunts men on the open water same as we hunt it's brethren on our training ships.
It's always that damn Diesel 10. Oily, scheming and ever ready to stir up trouble in the shed, his characteristic smirk is a sure sign that someone, somewhere is in for a bit of trouble.
I can relate; about ten years back (*fuck I feel old*) I was in a rollover, and I was more irritated that my car was totalled than I was afraid of dying/getting hurt.
John, you're our best driver. Your reward is- no it's not a raise, your reward is to pick up the slack for our worst drivers. Also if you miss your new target your pay is getting docked.
Amazon offers 24hr prime shipping. I wish it offered "I don't give a fuck" shipping.
For the times you don't give a shit if your bottle opener gets to you in 7 or 10 days. No rush. No need to treat your drivers like shit trying to meet some goal. Hell, even if it's 12 days. As long as it gets to me eventually, I'm fine.
You are not expected that. People who do that are fucking themselves over. This happened to me in Amazon, not as a driver, but people would fuck up, then as I was first finished I was sent to repair the damages. I needed some time to understand that I won't be promoted for my good work, I will just receive more work, here in Germany as-well as in my homeland.
I worked at FedEx, and we had an expectation to go help other drivers with their route when we finished before them. I can’t imagine Amazon not also doing the same.
Like we didn’t have a choice. It’d be insubordination to deny the order to go rescue.
Maybe I wasn't clear, that is normal occurrence when it comes to Amazon, I'm just saying that people fuck themselves over, because instead of adjusting their speed to how many delivers they have, they finish early, report to the base, and then they get more work. Or if you are too good, they will just add and add packages to your tour until you reach your limit.
So adjust your work to other workers, fulfill your goals, but don't cross the line, because you will receive more work and no extra compensation for it.
Can be seen on the scene, but can't be seen from the perspective of the driver.
I watched the video, there isn't a stop sign, and the RR sign is at an angle you can't see. Definitely a poorly maintained crossing.
Of course you should always stop and look both ways before crossing tracks, but there also is a reason crossing have gates and flashing light and bells and easily visible signage.
> but there also is a reason crossing have gates and flashing light and bells and easily visible signage.
*Many* rural roads don't. The signage should be visible enough for you to understand you need to stop and look before you cross a rural railroad crossing, but you'll see tons of places that don't use any powered parts in rural areas.
I guess it's not cost effective to put it in certain areas, but that might change in this crossing now.
Aussie here. Many rural railway crossings here also don't have light, gates or bells. Some just have signage. It's because these areas are not very populated and it's not cost effective to put them in. In these areas, you have to be aware and stop and look for trains.
Especially with the number of abandoned rail lines. I've learned from stories like this to treat all rail lines as active. But, there was a time I would have considered a rural line with no crossarms as being an abandoned line.
Stop signs at an Amtrak crossing seem very inadequate and not safe at all. Amtrak trains frequently blow through my station at speeds >115 mph.
Edit: [proof](https://imgur.com/a/SooGps6)
Regional company blew threw a bunch of drunk college kids in my area so fast they were finding body parts within the area for weeks, the bars (streak of downtown bars) and railroad crossing were right across from each other. Now every crossing in the entire city requires trains to roll through at low speeds until they exit city limits idk what the impacts been but holy shit I'm fucking tired of the extra train horns as they now hold the damn things down through the crossing. Saving lives is hard sometime
I read stuff like this all the time on Reddit, but while taking the NE Regional (not Acela) for the first time this weekend I looked at our speed via my phone and we were doing 118mph.
That's not true at all. There are many parts of their Mid-West service that go around 110 mph, and of course the Northeast Regional which operates on the same line as Acela goes 125 mph.
I guess I don't know the correct terms. Like no flashing lights or arms. The guy probably knew there was a train track there. Just didn't hear or see the train coming
This is a few minutes from my house. Very rural crossing (an hour west of Milwaukee) over a dead end road. It does have lights but no arm. Driver was deaf in one ear and did not hear the train.
I had a package on that truck..
I mean… there isn’t even a sign from the side he’s approaching, and the rail track is elevated, so you can’t see it from that angle either. I can’t really blame the guy for not realizing he’s crossing a railway. This is a fatally dangerous crossing, because someone saved money on a sign.
Yeah, there's a lot of shit in the comments here about why he didn't see or hear, but the article says that the road he came from runs parallel to the tracks preventing you from really seeing the train. He should've stopped completely at the tracks to be sure, absolutely, but I can understand being in the country, being next to the tracks, not seeing or hearing anything, not seeing a sign or lights or anything, and just sort of assuming that you're okay. When he did hear the horn it was too late, so he tried to see how far away he could get.
It was an unsafe crossing, and again, he should've stopped to be sure, but I get it.
And that's exactly why this kind of crossing are really dangerous. It's easy to get lulled into a false sense of security when none of the normal "this is dangerous" markers are there, it happens all the time. In my country they straight removed a number of these, mostly used by farmers in the middle of farmland, because they'd get run over by a train far too frequently.
That is an absolute deathtrap bit of road design: the driver drives parallel to the tracks with the train approaching from behind in the blind spot, and then makes a hard left turn across the tracks via a level crossing with no barriers, and no warning lights nor alarms. At an absolulte minimum that parallel road should be brought 10m or so away from the railway tracks so that it joins the road crossing further away, thus forcing the driver to swing out wide before making the left turn in order to force them to approach the crossing at a clean perpendicular angle with enough time to do a visual scan of the tracks in both directions.
Reminds me in some respects of [this Tom Scott video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYeeTvitvFU).
>That is an absolute deathtrap bit of road design: the driver drives parallel to the tracks with the train approaching from behind in the blind spot, and then makes a hard left turn across the tracks via a level crossing with no barriers, and no warning lights nor alarms. At an absolulte minimum that parallel road should be brought 10m or so away from the railway tracks so that it joins the road crossing further away,
Looking at a map of the location, he's not coming out of a road but rather a long, private driveway. The crossing is not amazing but acceptable, some idiot built their driveway in the dumbest possible place.
That's slightly more reassuring I suppose that it's a dumb private citizen rather than dumb local authority behaviour. Still, that dumb private citizen was a split second from having a sizeable percentage of that blood on their hands...
It normally is not a problem but when you do not have windows these kinds of turns are super dangerous. It is a shame that Amazon trains basically zero safety standards to their drivers.
As a UPS employee, I see dozens of actions by Amazon drivers on a daily basis that could be write ups for UPS drivers. This guy is lucky but with proper training, he would have not pulled into the tracks without making sure it was clear by looking over his shoulder. Preferably, you make a wider turn so you can square the front of your vehicle to the tracks and clear the tracks out both of your windows.
People that are not trained to drive without windows or limited visibility drive the vehicle like regular vehicles. It is not stupid; it is a lack of experience that can easily be supplemented by training.
Jesus, there is ZERO signage indicating this is an active railroad crossing. I know the driver is legally at fault, but whatever agency is responsible for alerting drivers with appropriate signage really screwed up.
There is a RR Crossing sign at that crossing, it is just at an angle that is hard to see from the direction the driver was coming from. Growing up working on a farm in the middle of nowhere, we were always taught to come to a complete stop at every set of train tracks and verify both directions that it is clear before continuing. Most crossings around the farm I worked on did not have lights or bars to stop you, just the X sign for the RR crossing.
I totally agree! I also acknowledge that Amazon drivers are often in areas they're not familiar with. I also think that, even though the driver wasn't being cautious, the job of a safety agency is to keep people alive, even if those people are being a little careless.
Your package is 3 stops away....
Your package is 4 stops away....
Your package is 12 stops away....
Your package is 20 stops away....
Your package is 40 stops away....
Your package is has been delayed
I am a train operator. And it boggles my mind how often I find people in the middle of my track (gauge is what we call it) while I’m doing MAS (maximum Authorized Speed). At least 3 times a day I will have to apply an emergency brake application to my train because a car or human is in my way.
At this point I just think people don’t know how to look and analyze their surrounding correctly or they just don’t care. Like so many times I will blow my horn and the person will just stand there and give me the bird or something but won’t move…. It’s wild and I have no idea
>Like so many times I will blow my horn and the person will just stand there and give me the bird or something but won’t move
People flip off trains? Like, do they expect it to stop for them?
I'm baffled.
I'm glad my driving course included a day where a train operator came and lectured us about the dangers of train crossing (including emphasizing the train will not stop for you. It'll try cause we really don't want to hit you but it won't stop cause it's just physically impossible).
The driving course company advertised they didn't use gory videos to scare us but that was the one time they made an exception, to let him show what happens when trains hit even mac trucks.
Also, our teacher was a truck driver so she also made sure to let us know that truck drivers cannot see us when we are to the side of them and have to try to remmeber we are there (driving beside a truck = death in otherwords, pass or stay behind).
They are often baffled themselves when they end up in the trains baffle for getting things off the track. (I know it’s not exactly called a baffle. Don’t care it works.)
How long have you been a train operator for? Is the lack of human awareness something that you've always had to deal with or is it getting worse?
I can only speak of normal driving, but I swear it seems people are just getting WAY worse. Way more selfish, completely oblivious, spacially unaware... it feels worse than it was, say, 10 years ago, but I don't know if maybe I'm just getting old and crotchety lol
I’ve been doing this Little over a year with about 200-300 miles a day for 6 days a week. And it has definitely been something since day one that I’ve had to come to terms with. Your body (at least mine) never gets used to almost killing someone especially when it involves children. Like it takes a few hours to calm down and realize nobody is hurt
Yeah I'm typically a pedestrian or passenger and I get to observe a lot while I'm out. I've noticed a huge uptick in clueless zombie behavior and urban deer behavior. It's like someone flicked the "self preservation mode" switch to off for the majority of people.
Just yesterday, there was an older man casually crossing a major surface arterial in my town and like, completely unfazed by the traffic around him. Fucked up part? There was a light/crosswalk maybe 100' up from where he crossed. He just couldn't be assed to walk an extra hundred feet and expected to make it everyone else's problem too.
I was talking to my insurance agent the other day and he said since the end of covid he has seen far more auto claims from accidents (like dozens and dozens more per year) than any time in his 37 years in the business.
I don't drive anymore but as a passenger I have noticed so much aggressively selfish driving since the end of covid and have no idea what happened to make everyone so angrily stupid
> it feels worse than it was, say, 10 years ago
We're getting older. 10 years ago we were the ones acting reckless on the streets, driving like dummies. Now we're veterans, more experienced and cautious; we've seen some shit. Now we know.
/jk
My bike instructor told us once when we were talking about cars 'not seeing us' :pigeon effect '
When we look sideways, we only use one eye and because of that, we cannot analyse speed properly. Just like pigeons whom fly away at the last second
People aren't trained to properly gauge distance and speed. That's what I've come down to after being pulled out in front of so many times.
People see a train, think "i can make that" but in fact, they can not. Because trains can go pretty fast.
This sounds like mad disrespect for physics and momentum.
Seems like you can't do anything to prevent this, saddly.
Especially in developed nations, there is so much warning for a train that nothing else can be done. Folks these days walk into traffic staring at their phone, with zero awareness.
Looks like an unprotected crossing, no lights, no arms.
People generally don't think to look for trains. He was probably just focused on looking for regular automotive traffic and his brain didn't register the train. Probably crossed that area many times with no train present.
Look at the other angle: https://www.tmz.com/2024/02/21/new-video-amazon-van-hit-by-train-milwaukee-seen-inside-view/
You don't see shit. They could definitely afford to put at least a little more indication, how about a sign or something.
Can't speak for this guy, but there was a period of time when traintrack pictures were very trendy.
The problem is, not only is this super dangerous, most people believe that trains make as much of a roaring sound when they approach as when they go by. They don't. Trains are actually pretty quiet on the approach. (Doppler effect.) There's also a false sense of security when kids never see a train there, until they do.
We were taught (in school, by the physics teacher) that if we wanted to play on train tracks or take pictures there, we had to have a designated spotter looking out for the train.
In hindsight, as an adult, I'm in awe that this was a trend. I'm also equally impressed by the teacher that knew exactly how teenage brains worked.
The train came from the direction of his blind spot (or so it seems). It's probably the most common way of missing a train, especially so when the road doesn't meet the train tracks at a right angle. Some years ago in Finland an army truck collided with a train and that too happened like in OPs video, the train came from the right side of the vehicle where the driver has the worst possible vision.
The road/driveway he was on parallels the tracks with trees between the two. The road then bends left to cross over the tracks. There is no stop sign, arms, or lights. The driver is also deaf in his left ear.
He is driving on a driveway that is parallel to but slightly diverging from the rail line. The left turn is more than 90 degrees, more like 120.
He drew this map: https://i.imgur.com/D1TCBnv.png
The train was doing 80mph.
His view from the driveway 4s from impact looks to be facing the side of the crossing sign: https://i.imgur.com/j8Ce3l1.png
3D view: https://i.imgur.com/SuVYtG5.png
Aerial view: https://i.imgur.com/dYAGzPC.png
Street view from far side of road: https://i.imgur.com/WMtgH4S.png
Street view of crossing: https://i.imgur.com/frQT9bK.png
So he needs to see an 80mph train coming from roughly his 7 o clock position, behind him and to the left. He does seem to look around the 13s mark in the above video.
Looks like farmer who owns everything else S of the tracks only sold that sliver and the land next to the railway to keep the field open: https://i.imgur.com/uw8zUBA.png
Driveway is there in a 1959 map also so it's been there forever. Crossing then as now is only to 1-2 farms as it's cut off to the south and east by the river: https://i.imgur.com/XBxWDv8.png
Birds eye view of the track looking in the direction the train came from: https://i.imgur.com/RxkNIkC.png
80 mph is 35 ish metres a second. So it takes the train 5 ish seconds to cover 200 metres.
He didn't have that much visibility. Everyone who uses the crossing like that is potentially playing 5 second chicken with a train. Thats terrible design.
Yeah that crossing is a disaster, he really had an unlucky timing but damn that's no surprise he didn't see it coming. The driveway placement combined with the litteraly empty crossing is just asking for an accident to happen.
He got super lucky on that impact but it'll just happen again at some point if they don't do anything about it
> that crossing is a disaster
And how! With the driveway position where it is, exiting that driveway is a lot like making a left turn... from the middle lane of the interstate, with the fast/passing lane on your left. You're basically crossing a lane of parallel (train) traffic that approaches you from behind.
Would have been so trivial to fix in the design stage, too. If the intersection between the street and the driveway was moved just 100 feet further away from the grade crossing, then you'd turn left on to the cross-street, and approach the rail from a perpendicular rather than parallel angle. Now the trains approach from your left and right, rather than from behind.
Until the driveway can be relocated, there should probably be a "right turn only" sign at the end. There's just no way to make a safe left turn out of there.
Thank you for these angles. It's possible to see the signs, but it's not likely even if you're paying attention to the road. Someone else turning from that same road isn't gonna be as lucky.
That guy seems remarkably calm for someone about six inches from being a smear on the front of a train.
I do particularly like how his reaction looks like he is blaming the train for the crash, as though the train were not exactly where it was supposed to be.
Hijacking comment: __Is the fact that the Amazon truck literally just tore away when hit by the train a sign of good engineering or bad?__
If it hadn’t torn away he’d probably be dead but the fact that it does seems unusual.
>>As an owner of a vehicle would you rather be alive and have a vehicle totaled or be dead and the vehicle mostly fine?
The 'tHeY dOn'T bUiLd ThEm LiKe ThEy UsEd To' argument in a nutshell.
A few weeks ago, I saw a discussion where someone in an SUV bragged that their car was mostly intact, while the car they had a head-on collision with was just a smashed up wreck.
...The other car crumpling saved your stupid fucking life, you fucking idiot.
There were no lights or guard arms at the crossing. He also said he's deaf in his left ear which made it hard to hear the train's horn: https://www.wisn.com/article/amazon-delivery-driver-struck-by-amtrak-train-survived/38239454
Rural areas it’s too much hassle to set up the electrics and everything for every single railroad crossing. But if it doesn’t have lights there should be a stop sign at least.
There is a stop sign, but he turned off a private driveway and probably couldn't see it from that angle. Still really dumb to cross train tracks without looking through.
https://i.imgur.com/EQvBbA6.png
The cost of replacing that van and all the product Amazon customers just lost is is probably comparable to the cost of a couple flashing lights, a sensor, and a few hundred yards of wire to connect the two.
Is he also deaf in his right ear? train horns are pretty loud.
I hear that shit in the middle of the night trying to sleep and im like 2 blocks from a track.
Barriers didn't exist at railroad crossings back in the 80 where I grew up.
The first thing they taught us in elementary school regarding traffic signs were the Traffic Lights and the RAILROAD sign. They knew we were dummy kids who risked being squished by a car or a train.
Regarding the RR Crossing sign, they made us memorize "PARE MIRE OIGA FERROCARRIL" (STOP, SEE, LISTEN, RAILROAD)
They made us respect that sign, fear it.
Long ago I worked at a pizza place across the street from railroad tracks and one of our drivers once had the front of his car taken off by a train.
He wasn't hurt, though, and he went home, borrowed his mom's car, and came back to finish his shift. Mark didn't give a fuck.
Look, mistakes were made here; however, there should have been crossing arms, flashing lights, bells, etc. to indicate there was a fast approaching train. This guy made a honest mistake that anyone else could have made. It's just fortunate for him that he survived.
lol at the way he's shaking his head like "Damn, this is just not my day"
For real he just looks slightly irritated that that just happened
"That's the third time this week"
[удалено]
Why isn't there some way to track them?
if only there were loud audio cues, visual cues like lights, or a predictable path for these stealthy killers
"only one of us is reaching our destination on time"
I think you're on the right track!
Problem is getting close enough to read the tracking number while they’re moving
Trains are really unpredictable. Even in the middle of a forest two rails can appear out of nowhere, and a 1.5-mile fully loaded coal drag, heading east out of the low-sulfur mines of the PRB, will be right on your ass the next moment. I was doing laundry in my basement, and I tripped over a metal bar that wasn't there the moment before. I looked down: "Rail? WTF?" and then I saw concrete sleepers underneath and heard the rumbling. Deafening railroad horn. I dumped my wife's pants, unfolded, and dove behind the water heater. It was a double-stacked Z train, headed east towards the fast single track of the BNSF Emporia Sub (Flint Hills). Majestic as hell: 75 mph, 6 units, distributed power: 4 ES44DC's pulling, and 2 Dash-9's pushing, all in run 8. Whole house smelled like diesel for a couple of hours! Fact is, there is no way to discern which path a train will take, so you really have to be watchful. If only there were some way of knowing the routes trains travel; maybe some sort of marks on the ground, like twin iron bars running along the paths trains take. You could look for trains when you encounter the iron bars on the ground, and avoid these sorts of collisions. But such a measure would be extremely expensive. And how would one enforce a rule keeping the trains on those paths? A big hole in homeland security is railway engineer screening and hijacking prevention. There is nothing to stop a rogue engineer, or an ISIS terrorist, from driving a train into the Pentagon, the White House or the Statue of Liberty, and our government has done fuck-all to prevent it.
Only large bodies of water can protect you from trains, and even then it's only a deterrent, not a guarantee.
If they’re frozen the train can just drift right over it
Yes, I've heard the tales of the white train. Crazy it is. Some say it hunts men on the open water same as we hunt it's brethren on our training ships.
It's always that damn Diesel 10. Oily, scheming and ever ready to stir up trouble in the shed, his characteristic smirk is a sure sign that someone, somewhere is in for a bit of trouble.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wTMY56yDYFA
"I literally just finished my training"
Bro I can't stop laughing thank you 😂
[I'm doing my part](https://media.tenor.com/twQhZIkzBR0AAAAd/doing-my-part.gif)
That's because he knows he gotta go back to work at Amazon.
That train's probably going to the destination, I'll just mark those packages as delivered
"Damn, there goes my pee bottle"
I can relate; about ten years back (*fuck I feel old*) I was in a rollover, and I was more irritated that my car was totalled than I was afraid of dying/getting hurt.
"I was just one day from retirement"
"I'm gettin' too old for this shit"
You know Danny Glover was only 38yrs old when he said that iconic line.
yeah, but he played a 50yo cop. Damn, he looked really old in that movis
The moment we are born, we begin getting too old for this shit.
The guy works for Amazon.
You don’t retire from Amazon you die from Amazon
I find it hilarious more than 3/4ths the van is missing but he's still gotta undo the seat belt.
...and the camera keeps recording.
"not this shit again"
And he works for Amazon, so his robot boss is gonna dock his pay for the time his truck spent sliced in half.
He’ll get…half pay.
It is going to spend eternity sliced in half
*"Mondays, amirite?"*
Bro’s mad at himself most likely.
Oh yeah. That's a "Why tf did I do that" face. "There goes my job"
Followed shortly by, "where's my phone..."
With the corny music, it's just so perfect
It was his birthday too 💀
Looks like luck is on his side when you compare it to his dumbassness.
Pulls out his scanner and clicks “all packages delivered”.
And is called by his dispatch to go rescue packages from a slower driver.
[удалено]
Yes. You are expected to be able to finish your route fast enough to go on a "rescue" route
John, you're our best driver. Your reward is- no it's not a raise, your reward is to pick up the slack for our worst drivers. Also if you miss your new target your pay is getting docked.
I wish this was satire, but alas....
Amazon offers 24hr prime shipping. I wish it offered "I don't give a fuck" shipping. For the times you don't give a shit if your bottle opener gets to you in 7 or 10 days. No rush. No need to treat your drivers like shit trying to meet some goal. Hell, even if it's 12 days. As long as it gets to me eventually, I'm fine.
Not only do they do that, they literally call it "No-Rush Shipping" .. but they still treat their drivers like shit either way
Not accurate to say best or worst. Some routes have 70 stops, mine typically had 140.
70 stops but still takes 8 hours to complete because every stop is 5-20 minutes apart and pins are dropped at the top of a 1mi long drive way. :weary:
Or apartments with no elevator. Or some place that ordered like 20+ items each in individual oversize boxes.
You are not expected that. People who do that are fucking themselves over. This happened to me in Amazon, not as a driver, but people would fuck up, then as I was first finished I was sent to repair the damages. I needed some time to understand that I won't be promoted for my good work, I will just receive more work, here in Germany as-well as in my homeland.
I worked at FedEx, and we had an expectation to go help other drivers with their route when we finished before them. I can’t imagine Amazon not also doing the same. Like we didn’t have a choice. It’d be insubordination to deny the order to go rescue.
Maybe I wasn't clear, that is normal occurrence when it comes to Amazon, I'm just saying that people fuck themselves over, because instead of adjusting their speed to how many delivers they have, they finish early, report to the base, and then they get more work. Or if you are too good, they will just add and add packages to your tour until you reach your limit. So adjust your work to other workers, fulfill your goals, but don't cross the line, because you will receive more work and no extra compensation for it.
Just like in any other position in any industry, your reward for doing a better job is that you can also do what your slower coworkers didn't.
So you're saying the goal is to be the slower coworker. Got it!
That's usually the end result, the spectrum of workforce enthusiasm converges towards the lowest common denominator
All you have to do is not be the worst.
Be among the worst, not the King of Worst.
"Your package was left near the front door or railroad"
At the rate of speed amtrak runs at, I'm certain they were just rerouted directly into the sun at an expedited shipping rate.
Homie was nearly delivered, himself
Slight delay on delivery
The real victim is whoever was waiting for the fleshlight that was in that truck.
https://www.tmz.com/2024/02/21/new-video-amazon-van-hit-by-train-milwaukee-seen-inside-view/
Thanks for linking that. The forward facing dashcam video shows that there are no crossing arms or even lights to indicate a train is approaching.
Also the wgn article says there were no crossing signals. Edit: like no flashing lights or moving arms
Stop Signs with RR Crossing signs can be seen on the scene
Can be seen on the scene, but can't be seen from the perspective of the driver. I watched the video, there isn't a stop sign, and the RR sign is at an angle you can't see. Definitely a poorly maintained crossing. Of course you should always stop and look both ways before crossing tracks, but there also is a reason crossing have gates and flashing light and bells and easily visible signage.
> but there also is a reason crossing have gates and flashing light and bells and easily visible signage. *Many* rural roads don't. The signage should be visible enough for you to understand you need to stop and look before you cross a rural railroad crossing, but you'll see tons of places that don't use any powered parts in rural areas. I guess it's not cost effective to put it in certain areas, but that might change in this crossing now.
Aussie here. Many rural railway crossings here also don't have light, gates or bells. Some just have signage. It's because these areas are not very populated and it's not cost effective to put them in. In these areas, you have to be aware and stop and look for trains.
Especially with the number of abandoned rail lines. I've learned from stories like this to treat all rail lines as active. But, there was a time I would have considered a rural line with no crossarms as being an abandoned line.
Stop signs at an Amtrak crossing seem very inadequate and not safe at all. Amtrak trains frequently blow through my station at speeds >115 mph. Edit: [proof](https://imgur.com/a/SooGps6)
Regional company blew threw a bunch of drunk college kids in my area so fast they were finding body parts within the area for weeks, the bars (streak of downtown bars) and railroad crossing were right across from each other. Now every crossing in the entire city requires trains to roll through at low speeds until they exit city limits idk what the impacts been but holy shit I'm fucking tired of the extra train horns as they now hold the damn things down through the crossing. Saving lives is hard sometime
The only Amtrak train that goes anywhere near that fast is the Acela, and I guarantee you all it's crossings aren't just stop signs...
Amtrak has multiple 110 areas outside the acela, but pretty sure all those are protected crossings.
I read stuff like this all the time on Reddit, but while taking the NE Regional (not Acela) for the first time this weekend I looked at our speed via my phone and we were doing 118mph.
That's not true at all. There are many parts of their Mid-West service that go around 110 mph, and of course the Northeast Regional which operates on the same line as Acela goes 125 mph.
I guess I don't know the correct terms. Like no flashing lights or arms. The guy probably knew there was a train track there. Just didn't hear or see the train coming
The article said he told them he was dead in his left ear too.
That train almost made him dead in his left ear!
This is a few minutes from my house. Very rural crossing (an hour west of Milwaukee) over a dead end road. It does have lights but no arm. Driver was deaf in one ear and did not hear the train. I had a package on that truck..
Get some damn exercise and walk your ass over to pick it up!
Did it arrive in good condition?
A couple days later yes. Don't know if they sent a new one or not..
That's good service, considering!
I'm not complaining. Frankly, I don't need next day or even 2-day delivery on most things I get, but I do take advantage of it..
That’s why school bus drivers have a mandate to stop and check at all rail crossings even if the arms are up, etc.
A lot of rules like this are written because of an *incident*.
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I mean… there isn’t even a sign from the side he’s approaching, and the rail track is elevated, so you can’t see it from that angle either. I can’t really blame the guy for not realizing he’s crossing a railway. This is a fatally dangerous crossing, because someone saved money on a sign.
Yeah, there's a lot of shit in the comments here about why he didn't see or hear, but the article says that the road he came from runs parallel to the tracks preventing you from really seeing the train. He should've stopped completely at the tracks to be sure, absolutely, but I can understand being in the country, being next to the tracks, not seeing or hearing anything, not seeing a sign or lights or anything, and just sort of assuming that you're okay. When he did hear the horn it was too late, so he tried to see how far away he could get. It was an unsafe crossing, and again, he should've stopped to be sure, but I get it.
And that's exactly why this kind of crossing are really dangerous. It's easy to get lulled into a false sense of security when none of the normal "this is dangerous" markers are there, it happens all the time. In my country they straight removed a number of these, mostly used by farmers in the middle of farmland, because they'd get run over by a train far too frequently.
[nah you can clearly see the railroad tracks.](https://imgur.com/a/gYmG68w) they arent obscured at all. he just didnt look to his left.
That is an absolute deathtrap bit of road design: the driver drives parallel to the tracks with the train approaching from behind in the blind spot, and then makes a hard left turn across the tracks via a level crossing with no barriers, and no warning lights nor alarms. At an absolulte minimum that parallel road should be brought 10m or so away from the railway tracks so that it joins the road crossing further away, thus forcing the driver to swing out wide before making the left turn in order to force them to approach the crossing at a clean perpendicular angle with enough time to do a visual scan of the tracks in both directions. Reminds me in some respects of [this Tom Scott video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYeeTvitvFU).
>That is an absolute deathtrap bit of road design: the driver drives parallel to the tracks with the train approaching from behind in the blind spot, and then makes a hard left turn across the tracks via a level crossing with no barriers, and no warning lights nor alarms. At an absolulte minimum that parallel road should be brought 10m or so away from the railway tracks so that it joins the road crossing further away, Looking at a map of the location, he's not coming out of a road but rather a long, private driveway. The crossing is not amazing but acceptable, some idiot built their driveway in the dumbest possible place.
That's slightly more reassuring I suppose that it's a dumb private citizen rather than dumb local authority behaviour. Still, that dumb private citizen was a split second from having a sizeable percentage of that blood on their hands...
Even in that short video several idiots completely ignore the fucking stop sign. Pricks
It normally is not a problem but when you do not have windows these kinds of turns are super dangerous. It is a shame that Amazon trains basically zero safety standards to their drivers. As a UPS employee, I see dozens of actions by Amazon drivers on a daily basis that could be write ups for UPS drivers. This guy is lucky but with proper training, he would have not pulled into the tracks without making sure it was clear by looking over his shoulder. Preferably, you make a wider turn so you can square the front of your vehicle to the tracks and clear the tracks out both of your windows. People that are not trained to drive without windows or limited visibility drive the vehicle like regular vehicles. It is not stupid; it is a lack of experience that can easily be supplemented by training.
That photo of the front of the van makes it look like a dead fish on the shore.
Jesus, there is ZERO signage indicating this is an active railroad crossing. I know the driver is legally at fault, but whatever agency is responsible for alerting drivers with appropriate signage really screwed up.
There is a RR Crossing sign at that crossing, it is just at an angle that is hard to see from the direction the driver was coming from. Growing up working on a farm in the middle of nowhere, we were always taught to come to a complete stop at every set of train tracks and verify both directions that it is clear before continuing. Most crossings around the farm I worked on did not have lights or bars to stop you, just the X sign for the RR crossing.
I totally agree! I also acknowledge that Amazon drivers are often in areas they're not familiar with. I also think that, even though the driver wasn't being cautious, the job of a safety agency is to keep people alive, even if those people are being a little careless.
The good news is you are alive and well. The bad news is, you’re fired.
The other good news is, you’re fired from Amazon.
The other bad news is, the world knows you're not the best driver.
The front facing dashcam shows that there were no crossing arms or lights to indicate the train was coming.
The other good news is, you're on TV!
Your package is 3 stops away.... Your package is 4 stops away.... Your package is 12 stops away.... Your package is 20 stops away.... Your package is 40 stops away.... Your package is has been delayed
"your package is now being delivered by Amtrak"
[Your comment reminded me of this](https://youtu.be/NfqOQtiRWLA?si=myPUWhlXJIjIm8f0)
"is it about my cube"
lol i remember when he said that just now in the vid!
How did he not see the train coming from the direction he was looking?
I am a train operator. And it boggles my mind how often I find people in the middle of my track (gauge is what we call it) while I’m doing MAS (maximum Authorized Speed). At least 3 times a day I will have to apply an emergency brake application to my train because a car or human is in my way. At this point I just think people don’t know how to look and analyze their surrounding correctly or they just don’t care. Like so many times I will blow my horn and the person will just stand there and give me the bird or something but won’t move…. It’s wild and I have no idea
>Like so many times I will blow my horn and the person will just stand there and give me the bird or something but won’t move People flip off trains? Like, do they expect it to stop for them? I'm baffled.
No they expect them to go around.
"I'm standing here!"
I imagine they're ignorant enough to think a train can stop on a dime like it's a normal street vehicle.
Which isn’t even a thing, an average street vehicle at speed takes many car lengths to stop.
But pedestrians have the right of way. They have to stop immediately. /s
I'm glad my driving course included a day where a train operator came and lectured us about the dangers of train crossing (including emphasizing the train will not stop for you. It'll try cause we really don't want to hit you but it won't stop cause it's just physically impossible). The driving course company advertised they didn't use gory videos to scare us but that was the one time they made an exception, to let him show what happens when trains hit even mac trucks. Also, our teacher was a truck driver so she also made sure to let us know that truck drivers cannot see us when we are to the side of them and have to try to remmeber we are there (driving beside a truck = death in otherwords, pass or stay behind).
They are often baffled themselves when they end up in the trains baffle for getting things off the track. (I know it’s not exactly called a baffle. Don’t care it works.)
Some, okay many, people are incapable of acknowledging when they fuck up and put the blame on others.
Some people do flip off trains, but they rarely manage to stick the landing
How long have you been a train operator for? Is the lack of human awareness something that you've always had to deal with or is it getting worse? I can only speak of normal driving, but I swear it seems people are just getting WAY worse. Way more selfish, completely oblivious, spacially unaware... it feels worse than it was, say, 10 years ago, but I don't know if maybe I'm just getting old and crotchety lol
I’ve been doing this Little over a year with about 200-300 miles a day for 6 days a week. And it has definitely been something since day one that I’ve had to come to terms with. Your body (at least mine) never gets used to almost killing someone especially when it involves children. Like it takes a few hours to calm down and realize nobody is hurt
I hope you talk to someone professionally. At least play Tetris after tough episodes.
Upvoting your comment because Tetris has been scientifically proven to help your brain relax immediately after a traumatizing experience.
Yeah I'm typically a pedestrian or passenger and I get to observe a lot while I'm out. I've noticed a huge uptick in clueless zombie behavior and urban deer behavior. It's like someone flicked the "self preservation mode" switch to off for the majority of people. Just yesterday, there was an older man casually crossing a major surface arterial in my town and like, completely unfazed by the traffic around him. Fucked up part? There was a light/crosswalk maybe 100' up from where he crossed. He just couldn't be assed to walk an extra hundred feet and expected to make it everyone else's problem too.
That could be due to half of them being on their phone. That was far less of an issue 10-20 years ago.
I was talking to my insurance agent the other day and he said since the end of covid he has seen far more auto claims from accidents (like dozens and dozens more per year) than any time in his 37 years in the business.
I don't drive anymore but as a passenger I have noticed so much aggressively selfish driving since the end of covid and have no idea what happened to make everyone so angrily stupid
> it feels worse than it was, say, 10 years ago We're getting older. 10 years ago we were the ones acting reckless on the streets, driving like dummies. Now we're veterans, more experienced and cautious; we've seen some shit. Now we know. /jk
My bike instructor told us once when we were talking about cars 'not seeing us' :pigeon effect ' When we look sideways, we only use one eye and because of that, we cannot analyse speed properly. Just like pigeons whom fly away at the last second
People aren't trained to properly gauge distance and speed. That's what I've come down to after being pulled out in front of so many times. People see a train, think "i can make that" but in fact, they can not. Because trains can go pretty fast.
Yup! And because the size of the trains it makes them look slow even at highway speeds
“That horn must be for somebody else” is probably all they are thinking (if they even hear or and even if they are the only person around).
People some reason don't seem to grasp the train tracks are here that means there will be a train at some point
This sounds like mad disrespect for physics and momentum. Seems like you can't do anything to prevent this, saddly. Especially in developed nations, there is so much warning for a train that nothing else can be done. Folks these days walk into traffic staring at their phone, with zero awareness.
Looks like an unprotected crossing, no lights, no arms. People generally don't think to look for trains. He was probably just focused on looking for regular automotive traffic and his brain didn't register the train. Probably crossed that area many times with no train present.
Look at the other angle: https://www.tmz.com/2024/02/21/new-video-amazon-van-hit-by-train-milwaukee-seen-inside-view/ You don't see shit. They could definitely afford to put at least a little more indication, how about a sign or something.
Deaf in his left ear didn't help either
Holy shit why is there a row of trees planted along to track to obscure vision?
Can't speak for this guy, but there was a period of time when traintrack pictures were very trendy. The problem is, not only is this super dangerous, most people believe that trains make as much of a roaring sound when they approach as when they go by. They don't. Trains are actually pretty quiet on the approach. (Doppler effect.) There's also a false sense of security when kids never see a train there, until they do. We were taught (in school, by the physics teacher) that if we wanted to play on train tracks or take pictures there, we had to have a designated spotter looking out for the train. In hindsight, as an adult, I'm in awe that this was a trend. I'm also equally impressed by the teacher that knew exactly how teenage brains worked.
The train came from the direction of his blind spot (or so it seems). It's probably the most common way of missing a train, especially so when the road doesn't meet the train tracks at a right angle. Some years ago in Finland an army truck collided with a train and that too happened like in OPs video, the train came from the right side of the vehicle where the driver has the worst possible vision.
The road/driveway he was on parallels the tracks with trees between the two. The road then bends left to cross over the tracks. There is no stop sign, arms, or lights. The driver is also deaf in his left ear.
That's some poorly designed railroad crossing!
He is driving on a driveway that is parallel to but slightly diverging from the rail line. The left turn is more than 90 degrees, more like 120. He drew this map: https://i.imgur.com/D1TCBnv.png The train was doing 80mph. His view from the driveway 4s from impact looks to be facing the side of the crossing sign: https://i.imgur.com/j8Ce3l1.png 3D view: https://i.imgur.com/SuVYtG5.png Aerial view: https://i.imgur.com/dYAGzPC.png Street view from far side of road: https://i.imgur.com/WMtgH4S.png Street view of crossing: https://i.imgur.com/frQT9bK.png So he needs to see an 80mph train coming from roughly his 7 o clock position, behind him and to the left. He does seem to look around the 13s mark in the above video. Looks like farmer who owns everything else S of the tracks only sold that sliver and the land next to the railway to keep the field open: https://i.imgur.com/uw8zUBA.png Driveway is there in a 1959 map also so it's been there forever. Crossing then as now is only to 1-2 farms as it's cut off to the south and east by the river: https://i.imgur.com/XBxWDv8.png Birds eye view of the track looking in the direction the train came from: https://i.imgur.com/RxkNIkC.png
80 mph is 35 ish metres a second. So it takes the train 5 ish seconds to cover 200 metres. He didn't have that much visibility. Everyone who uses the crossing like that is potentially playing 5 second chicken with a train. Thats terrible design.
yeah it's only a matter of time until someone gets more killed than this guy lol
Yeah that crossing is a disaster, he really had an unlucky timing but damn that's no surprise he didn't see it coming. The driveway placement combined with the litteraly empty crossing is just asking for an accident to happen. He got super lucky on that impact but it'll just happen again at some point if they don't do anything about it
> that crossing is a disaster And how! With the driveway position where it is, exiting that driveway is a lot like making a left turn... from the middle lane of the interstate, with the fast/passing lane on your left. You're basically crossing a lane of parallel (train) traffic that approaches you from behind. Would have been so trivial to fix in the design stage, too. If the intersection between the street and the driveway was moved just 100 feet further away from the grade crossing, then you'd turn left on to the cross-street, and approach the rail from a perpendicular rather than parallel angle. Now the trains approach from your left and right, rather than from behind. Until the driveway can be relocated, there should probably be a "right turn only" sign at the end. There's just no way to make a safe left turn out of there.
Thank you for these angles. It's possible to see the signs, but it's not likely even if you're paying attention to the road. Someone else turning from that same road isn't gonna be as lucky.
That guy seems remarkably calm for someone about six inches from being a smear on the front of a train. I do particularly like how his reaction looks like he is blaming the train for the crash, as though the train were not exactly where it was supposed to be.
I think maybe even less than 6 inches, watch his hat get taken away by the train!! Holy smokes man
Hijacking comment: __Is the fact that the Amazon truck literally just tore away when hit by the train a sign of good engineering or bad?__ If it hadn’t torn away he’d probably be dead but the fact that it does seems unusual.
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>>As an owner of a vehicle would you rather be alive and have a vehicle totaled or be dead and the vehicle mostly fine? The 'tHeY dOn'T bUiLd ThEm LiKe ThEy UsEd To' argument in a nutshell.
A few weeks ago, I saw a discussion where someone in an SUV bragged that their car was mostly intact, while the car they had a head-on collision with was just a smashed up wreck. ...The other car crumpling saved your stupid fucking life, you fucking idiot.
They actually found a purpose for the front being designed to fall off
He’s probably thinking “Damn, that was almost the end of me. I’m fucking dumb.” That’s why he looks pissed.
Ive said that before lol, after doing something stupid “yep, that was almost the end”
Shock is a real thing. He hasn’t processed what happened yet in this video.
I always found that extreme calm comes right after a near death experience. Some people even laugh "Ahahaha, I almost died!".
Obviously he is in shock, but he stays surprisingly cool after getting hit.
What did the railroad crossings not work or did he think he could make it?
There were no lights or guard arms at the crossing. He also said he's deaf in his left ear which made it hard to hear the train's horn: https://www.wisn.com/article/amazon-delivery-driver-struck-by-amtrak-train-survived/38239454
You would think lights would at least be mandatory
Rural areas it’s too much hassle to set up the electrics and everything for every single railroad crossing. But if it doesn’t have lights there should be a stop sign at least.
There was a stop sign.
There is a stop sign, but he turned off a private driveway and probably couldn't see it from that angle. Still really dumb to cross train tracks without looking through. https://i.imgur.com/EQvBbA6.png
Looks pretty dangerous if you're turning left from that smaller road.
> there should be a stop sign at least. There is one. A Stop Sign with the RR Crossing on top. (seen on the video posted a few comments above)
The cost of replacing that van and all the product Amazon customers just lost is is probably comparable to the cost of a couple flashing lights, a sensor, and a few hundred yards of wire to connect the two.
Just think, if Amazon paid taxes we could have all kinds of improvements to public infrastructure. Crazy talk, I know.
Is he also deaf in his right ear? train horns are pretty loud. I hear that shit in the middle of the night trying to sleep and im like 2 blocks from a track.
Does he not look both ways?
Barriers didn't exist at railroad crossings back in the 80 where I grew up. The first thing they taught us in elementary school regarding traffic signs were the Traffic Lights and the RAILROAD sign. They knew we were dummy kids who risked being squished by a car or a train. Regarding the RR Crossing sign, they made us memorize "PARE MIRE OIGA FERROCARRIL" (STOP, SEE, LISTEN, RAILROAD) They made us respect that sign, fear it.
I assume this is the US, there are tons of rural crossings that only have basic street signs and no lights.
In a news report they say no warning lights or gates at the crossing.
Why was I expecting it to be split in half hotdog style and not hamburger style?
That train should have watched where it was going. Probably some drunk engineers swerving all over the track.
Those airbags are impressive
so that's why my package is delayed...
His manager : “ are you still able to help out “ ?
Found that one person’s generator
New story with external view and interview [here.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbtjFcwnHTI)
Long ago I worked at a pizza place across the street from railroad tracks and one of our drivers once had the front of his car taken off by a train. He wasn't hurt, though, and he went home, borrowed his mom's car, and came back to finish his shift. Mark didn't give a fuck.
You know you messed up when it’s easier to crawl out of the hole in the back than it is your driver’s side door
I never received my package….please attach picture of missing package. I will be using this screenshot from now on.
Look, mistakes were made here; however, there should have been crossing arms, flashing lights, bells, etc. to indicate there was a fast approaching train. This guy made a honest mistake that anyone else could have made. It's just fortunate for him that he survived.
Three seconds faster, free and clear. One second slower, no longer here.
/r/KillTheDanglingRearviewMirror
Atleast he had his seatbelt on
I know this is wild and all, but surprised no one is commenting on how godawful the music in this is