Keep The Rubber Side Down: Failing Grade

There’s an old riddle that goes “Railroad crossing, look out for cars. Can you spell that without any Rs?” It’s funny to see how people try to spell the whole sentence without using the letter R. When it comes to railroad crossings though, it’s no laughing matter. Texas has the largest number of rails in the nation, which means it also has the most railroad crossings. Unfortunately, it also means that the state has the dubious distinction of having more deaths due to trains colliding with road vehicles (cars, etc.) than any other state. The kicker is, none of these deaths had to occur. So, why did they?

The primary reason is the misjudging of a train’s speed. A train that appears to be stopped could easily be traveling at 30 to 70 mph. That gives the operator of a motor vehicle the false sense that he can get across the tracks before the train does. If the operator is lucky, he’ll make it. If not, the consequences are devastating. A motor vehicle, whether it is a motorcycle, a car, or a tractor-trailer never stands a chance against a 60-ton locomotive. To make matters worse, a train traveling at 70 mph may take up to one mile before it comes to a complete stop once the emergency brake is applied.

So why do these people take such a big chance? In our hurry up and get there world, we tend to through caution to the wind. No one wants to wait for a 90-car train to go by, it takes too long. So we go around crossing gates that are warning us to stay put. Instead of waiting only 2-5 minutes for the train to pass, we risk are lives. Wait! Did you read that right? Only 2-5 minutes? That is the average time it takes for a train to clear a crossing. Is that really worth losing your life over?

Here’s another factor involved in some of these fatalities. Just as the vehicle is starting to cross the tracks, it stalls out. Now, the vehicle and the operator are sitting ducks for the oncoming train. “Oh” you say to yourself, “but I ride a motorcycle and I can push it off the tracks”. If you’re lucky, maybe you can, but do you really want to bet your life on it? What if the tires get stuck in the rail groves? What if it has fallen over? What if the bike is loaded to maximum weight capacity? What if the train is moving faster than you thought it was?

How often have you seen, or perhaps done it yourself, a vehicle stopped on the tracks at a right light? There may not have been a train in sight when the operator stopped the vehicle there. The gamble here is that the light will change before a train ever shows up. It’s a bad bet. The vehicle ahead could have mechanical problems. The traffic light could malfunction and fail to turn green. The may have been an accident at that intersection causing traffic in all direction to come to a complete stop. So that bet that the light would change before a train came, well take a look down the tracks now. See that white light? If that’s you on those tracks, you gambled and you lost.

Why take the chance? Nobody wins when a train and a motor vehicle cross paths. Ask any train engineer. They’ll tell you their biggest fear is seeing a vehicle either sitting on the tracks, trying to go around the...

We hope that you enjoyed reading this excerpt from "Failing Grade". If you would like to read the entire article and more, you can order a back issue of May / June 2004 where this article was originally published.

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