http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enkh9A5jdUI


http://www.newsobserver.com/news/story/1559813.html (BTW, we are now train fanatics)

WOW.... Some people are blind....

An automobile / train collision occurred on the New Hope Valley Railway shortly before 4:00PM on Sunday, June 7th at the Daisey St. grade crossing in Bonsal, NC. Steam Locomotive 17 was in charge of the train.

The Apex Fire Department responded within four minutes, followed by Apex EMS, the North Carolina Highway Patrol and the Wake County Sheriff’s Department.

No one was injured in the incident. All passengers detrained in an orderly manner and were interviewed by Apex EMS and the North Carolina Highway Patrol. The driver of the car was also interviewed by Apex EMS and the North Carolina Highway Patrol. He was released on scene shortly after the incident.

The New Hope Valley Railway wishes to ask the railroad preservation and rail fan communities to respect the privacy of all involved in the incident. The New Hope Valley Railway has no knowledge of and will not speculate on the driver of the car or his condition other than what has been released in this statement and what has already been reported in the media. The North Carolina Highway Patrol’s investigation is currently ongoing.

Damage to railroad property was minimal.

The New Hope Valley Railway maintains a strong relationship with law enforcement and first responders in the community. The railway hosted an emergency training ‘mass casualty’ drill in cooperation with local first responders and law enforcement in the fall of 2008. The drill not only prepared our railroad volunteers for how to react to an emergency situation but also familiarized first responders with our excursion train so they may better react to incidents such as this one.

The entire incident was captured by a passenger and posted on the “youtube” website. Pictures taken at the scene are available on the web and news articles are available from a wide variety of sources. We have links to a few below.

Youtube Video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enkh9A5jdUI

Firefighter’s Blog:
http://www.legeros.com/ralwake/photos/w ... hp?id=2317

News and Observer Article:
http://www.newsobserver.com/news/story/1559813.html

Local ABC News Affiliate Article:
http://abclocal.go.com/wtvd/story?secti ... id=6852874

Regards,
Mike MacLean
Director, Steam Operations
New Hope Valley Railway
http://www.nhvry.org

Reminds me of a friend in Tucson, a conductor with So. Pacific, who told of the night in Albuquerque that his train was switching an industrial siding. The train was standing still, the gate down and the lights flashing. Down the street came a car and ran right into the box car on the crossing. When my friend asked the driver, a drunk, why he hit the train, the drunk replied "What train?"

Those are some seriously big (12") crossing light heads-- and they look like LEDs. Can't get much better than that; and the bell was ringing, but the "driver" didn't even slow down-- just kept on truckin' along. Wow.

Howard P.
Fail-The-Road-Test, NY

If you watch closely, at no point in the video, was the driver, on his side of the road.......

Must have been something in the water.

I see in Flimsies that the Cuyahoga Valley got a mini van and we at TVRM got a Mustang at a crossing protected by a traffic light and a sign that says "no right turn on red", all on the same day. Interesting to note that all three crossings had some sort of signalization.

Tim Andrews
TVRM
Chattanooga, Tn

Back in February, my son smacked a snowmobile with an AC4400 at 50 mph. Some drunk parked the thing partway on the tracks and went into a bar. I asked my son what it was like, and he said, "Well I got great loft on the Polaris, but I hooked it pretty bad."
Went waaaay right.

The youtube video reminds me of an incident back in the 1970s when a driver went around a crossing gate in the city at night, and collided with a locomotive. The train was doing about 15 mph and the locomotive he hit was the fifth one in the lashup. He claimed he did not see it. Considering it was a Penn Central unit, that explanation might be somewhat believable.

PC

Can somebody who is close to this keep us posted as the facts come out? Obviously this isn't normal rational behavior.

Whatys the bit in the news release about respecting privacy? This maniac was endangering himself and others on a public road, there is no expectation of privacy and his actions and intelligence will be discussed far and wide. This driver should be the poster child for why the installation of gates will not prevent all grade crossing collisions, contrary to what Angels Off Track claim. The only thing a gate would have done at this crossing is get sandwiched between the station wagon and passenger car.

I believe the "ongoing investigation" phrase explains it - we don't actually know what the situation is yet. Speculating on the mental health / possible medical or impairment issues which may or may not exist is kind of useless without some real information to back it up. I know it wasn't age since the driver is younger than me...........

I would have been there (getting some training) for that incident if I hadn't been dealing with other things - kind of sorry I missed it. NHVRR does work frequently with the responders in their community in training exercises, which has done a lot to streamline communication and appropriate action response. I'd certainly recommend any operating railroad - or stationary museum for that matter - work with responders to stage railcar hazmat drills, property access plans, whatever - and build the relationships and familiarity between the organizations that will streamline reaction to any incidents. NHVRR has a tank car full of water for 17 - which can also be used to fight fires along the line, for example. Great way to positively be part of the community.

That wagon was almost a classic........shame. At least nobody was hurt.

dave

June 1992 I was at the throttle of Queen Annes' steam loco #3 and got hit by a pickup truck. The truck hit the coach behind the locomotive on a clear, sunny day. The whole fiasco went to court after the driver's "ambulance chasing" attorney tried to sue the RR for blocking the crossing. I / we / the RR had done everything right, and the case was dismissed. Anyway, I still don't know how someone can not see a steam locomotive plume of smoke, whistle, and bell on a clear day in an open field.

As a former member of Operation Lifesaver here in Wisconsin, I learned a great deal from the police officers who sat on the board about grade crossing accidents. One thing they stressed was that a great number of the accidents were caused by driver inattention which led to running into the side of the train that was already in the crossing. A common reason/excuse given by the surviving vehicle driver was: "I drive this road all the time and wasn't expecting to see a train."

OLI stages mock grade crossing accident scenes for local responders to use for practice. This is done with full cooperation of local police and sherrif departments, who heartily endorse these simulations. They definitely don't like dealing with the aftermath, which can be quite unsettling for the first responders as well. Publicity generated by the mock accidents is used as part of an educational program, to help make the public aware of the dangers inherent around trains.

It's all about education.

Jack

I've always wondered how a single red painted piece of aluminum with the word "STOP" on it will cause every driver to stop without fail (unless you live in the inner city) but for railroad crossings you need advance warning signs, pavement markings, multiple flashing lights, crossbucks, gates with more lights, bells, bells on the locomotive, air horns and several high wattage lights to get drivers to stop. Something certainly is amiss here.

Since the driving public is trained to obey stop signs and traffic signals, why not reinvent the entire rail/road interface and install traffic signals? It is after all an intersection. The public is trained to stop on red, and they do. You don't need gates at road/road intersections, the idea is ludicrous. They should not be needed at rail/road intersections either.

Years ago, I was diesel second man on RS-1 # 8208, pulling a Salem & Hillsborough Railway passenger train. A loaded dump truck, driving far too fast, came over the hill toward the Highway 114 crossing we had just occupied. Our hogger instinctively opened the throttle wide, but there was no outrunning the truck.

The driver finally noticed our train about 150' from the crossing, slammed on the brakes, and cranked the wheel hard to the right. He very nearly flipped, spilling gravel on the pavement. He ended up with the front wheels in the ditch, parked parallel to the track, about fifteen feet from our our train. I'm sure he was a little shaken!

This was far too close a call, as the car he nearly hit was a converted 36' single sheathed boxcar used as an open- air car. Luckily there were few if any passengers on that car, but our trainman received the scare of his life. Had the truck hit full force, that car would surely have rolled with him inside.

Incidents like these really make you wonder about the motoring public!

Steve Hunter
Cardinal, Ontario