Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Responsibility

Sorry, but...

The woman who was trapped on Elm Grove railroad tracks with her toddler son on the way to a Memorial Day parade said Wednesday that vehicles ahead of her stopped without warning so passengers could get out and grab lawn chairs and snacks.

Seconds later, a 94-car freight train slammed into her vehicle.

...again I must reiterate… DON’T try to cross train tracks unless you know you have enough room on the other side to clear them.  The driver carries a huge amount of responsibility for two men being seriously injured and nearly killed her kids.

(6) Comments
Posted by Owen at 2329 hrs
Off-Duty

  1. Here’s an addition.  When the car in front of you stops to make sure of getting across the tracks, or stops to leave an intersection open for cross traffic, or stops to leave the exit/entrance to a place of business open, or stops to allow a car on the other side to turn so there’s no backed-up traffic there ... Don’t Lean on Your Car Horn!

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on June 11, 2009 at 0007 hrs


  2. I was up north at the time, so I may have missed something, but wasn’t there a story about how they timed the gates and found that they dropped without sufficient time to get out of the way?

    Posted by capper on June 11, 2009 at 0014 hrs


  3. As soon as the details of this story became clearer, I remember thinking that one thing—why in heaven’s name was she stopped on the tracks? 

    You never, ever stop on train tracks.  You don’t pull across the tracks until you know there’s enough space in front of you to clear them.  This driver unquestionably bears primary responsibility for putting her husband, her kids, and this cop at risk.  It was a moment of bad judgment with terrible consequences.

    It doesn’t matter how quickly the gates drop.  If you’re not stopped on the track to begin with, you’ll have time to get out of the way.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on June 11, 2009 at 0704 hrs


  4. Agreed.  No one - NO ONE - should EVER cross the tracks unless and until it’s clear that there is enough room on the other side.  Had she waited, she would’ve realized that people were stopping to let people out, etc.  There is absolutely no excuse for what happened.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on June 11, 2009 at 0851 hrs


  5. I hope she gets a ticket.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on June 11, 2009 at 1053 hrs


  6. I hope she gets a ticket.

    I’m not so sure I feel that way.  I’m sure that watching your minivan get blasted to smithereens by a speeding freight train with your husband and two-year-old kid still in it is probably far more punishment than any traffic citation will be.  And I’d assume that her auto insurer, if they’ll even still have her after this, will pretty much nail her to the cross for the next half-decade or so on her premiums.

    My only point is that, in all of the articles I’ve seen about this story so far, I haven’t seen anyone suggest that the driver of the van bears any responsibility for what transpired.  I was glad to see Owen frame it in that light.

    I suspect, though, that this driver has re-lived that moment in her mind 10,000 times since it happened.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on June 11, 2009 at 1800 hrs


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