Good luck with that! Really got a chuckle out of this one. Let me see- your train hits a car at an unmarked crossing and you want a jury to believe it is the car drivers fault??
The MTA doesn’t own the tracks. So it’s not their fault it’s unmarked – the tracks used by the MTA are also used by Commercial Freight companies as well as Amtrak. Also, it’s not that the track was “unmarked,” it just didn’t have gates. If the person driving the car does slow down or yield to on coming train then yes, they are at fault. How many times do you see it happen when people park directly on the tracks because they are at a light or intersection?
Even if the driver of the train saw the car parked on the crossing, the odds of stopping a moving train going 30mph with 8-14 cars (MTA trains normal load) in under a half a mile are still pretty slim. The driver of the car should be responsible for their own stupidity. Parking your car on the tracks is just stupid.
Is a train track open and obvious to the general public? If so, why do we need vegas flashing lights? Isn’t a train’s horn enough? Wonder how many times per week the Driver passes over these same railroad tracks????? Isn’t it about time to share the blame with the so called Victims? Maybe the injured daughter can sue the Mother…
there’s got to be more to the incident. because, unless her car failed as she was crossing the tracks, both the driver and the train had to had seen each other. at least you would have thought that. an unmarked crossing, still should have been treated like a marked crossing either way. but the train driver, was asleep at the wheel or just did not see the vehicle sitting on the track? or did she actually try to beat the train across the track and lost? i wonder how much damage that car did, bet the car is totaled. glad to hear that both of them are alive from this incident.
We have a lot of dangerous rail crossings in this country, where the road and/or the track bend together and it’s difficult to see whether there is a train coming without coming to a complete stop.
Good luck with that! Really got a chuckle out of this one. Let me see- your train hits a car at an unmarked crossing and you want a jury to believe it is the car drivers fault??
George –
The MTA doesn’t own the tracks. So it’s not their fault it’s unmarked – the tracks used by the MTA are also used by Commercial Freight companies as well as Amtrak. Also, it’s not that the track was “unmarked,” it just didn’t have gates. If the person driving the car does slow down or yield to on coming train then yes, they are at fault. How many times do you see it happen when people park directly on the tracks because they are at a light or intersection?
Even if the driver of the train saw the car parked on the crossing, the odds of stopping a moving train going 30mph with 8-14 cars (MTA trains normal load) in under a half a mile are still pretty slim. The driver of the car should be responsible for their own stupidity. Parking your car on the tracks is just stupid.
I have never seen anyone park their cars on railroad tracks. The article does not say this was the case in this situation, either.
Is a train track open and obvious to the general public? If so, why do we need vegas flashing lights? Isn’t a train’s horn enough? Wonder how many times per week the Driver passes over these same railroad tracks????? Isn’t it about time to share the blame with the so called Victims? Maybe the injured daughter can sue the Mother…
It’ll never see a jury.
there’s got to be more to the incident. because, unless her car failed as she was crossing the tracks, both the driver and the train had to had seen each other. at least you would have thought that. an unmarked crossing, still should have been treated like a marked crossing either way. but the train driver, was asleep at the wheel or just did not see the vehicle sitting on the track? or did she actually try to beat the train across the track and lost? i wonder how much damage that car did, bet the car is totaled. glad to hear that both of them are alive from this incident.
We have a lot of dangerous rail crossings in this country, where the road and/or the track bend together and it’s difficult to see whether there is a train coming without coming to a complete stop.