Crossing Gates, take 2 - How's this for irony?

[Kev Williams]

Check out this video & story, happened about 12 miles from me this morning... edit, turns out it happened Saturday, just released the video today...

http://www.ksl.com/?sid=42974092&nid=148&title=police-video-crossing-arms-not-active-when-frontrunner-train-hit-semitrailer



(http://www.ksl.com/?sid=42974092&nid=148&title=police-video-crossing-arms-not-active-when-frontrunner-train-hit-semitrailer)

[Steve Peterson]

Yikes! It really makes you wonder how complacent we have become when we expect technology to do its job. It is really easy to trust that it is safe to cross. The same thing probably happens a lot with red lights.

Steve

[Kev Williams]

Yikes! It really makes you wonder how complacent we have become when we expect technology to do its job. It is really easy to trust that it is safe to cross. The same thing probably happens a lot with red lights.

Steve
One Sunday many years ago when I was still picking up my kids on weekends, me & the wife was heading to their place, and up ahead we noticed the cars at the next intersection acting weird, even though the lights were green... When we reached the intersection we figured out why-- EVERY light was green, in all 4 directions...

These are reasons why I'm not all that thrilled with fly-by-wire gas pedals and self-driving cars...

[Matt Meiser]

There were a number of bad accidents at an intersection here where drivers and witnesses claimed both vehicles had green lights. MDOT investigated but claims to have never found anything (which would be convenient for the state so call me skeptical) and the problem seems to have magically gone away.

[Van Huskey]

There were a number of bad accidents at an intersection here where drivers and witnesses claimed both vehicles had green lights. MDOT investigated but claims to have never found anything (which would be convenient for the state so call me skeptical) and the problem seems to have magically gone away.

While I would be skeptical also it is true intermittent are often difficult or impossible to reproduce when trouble shooting.


As to fly by wire brake and accelerator pedals I don't remember ever seeing a dangerous failure, but likely they have occurred but the same is true for mechanically linked controls.

[Lee Schierer]

Check out this video & story, happened about 12 miles from me this morning... edit, turns out it happened Saturday, just released the video today...

http://www.ksl.com/?sid=42974092&nid=148&title=police-video-crossing-arms-not-active-when-frontrunner-train-hit-semitrailer

This is information regarding the crossing gate incident.

" Initial indications are that the crossing arms were affected by snow and ice from Saturday's storm, Goeres said, causing them to drop into the safety default "lowered and active" position, where they remained for about 12 minutes prior to the crash.

A UTA employee was dispatched to the crossing and was at the scene when the crossing arms raised, Goeres said. The employee was still at the crossing when the crash occurred.

It is unknown why the gates remained up as the train approached, Goeres said. UTA is still investigating how long the crossing arms had been raised before the train arrived, and why they activated and lowered again moments after the crash"

[Ronald Blue]

A UTA employee was dispatched to the crossing and was at the scene when the crossing arms raised, Goeres said. The employee was still at the crossing when the crash occurred.

It is unknown why the gates remained up as the train approached, Goeres said. UTA is still investigating how long the crossing arms had been raised before the train arrived, and why they activated and lowered again moments after the crash"[/QUOTE]

It's pretty clear what took place here. The gates went up because the employee took an action to bypass the cause of the gates being down in the first place. Most likely a jumper wire in the signal house. A big mistake on his part. Then when the train came the gates couldn't function as intended. What should have happened was a stop and protect order be put in place for all rail traffic until the problem was corrected. This requires the train to stop, the conductor dismount and flag the crossing as the train then pulls up blocking the crossing and the conductor boarding again and the train continuing. If there is a problem with a crossing warning system they default to safe mode and go down. If you see gates malfuntioning and there is no train in sight and hasn't been for a few minutes please call the 800 number on the signal house. Every crossing like this has a DOT number assigned so they can pinpoint it posted on the signal house. A signal maintainer will be dispatched and a stop in protect order put in effect.