Re: Interesting Occurance

[Michael Milway <Michael_Milway@uow.edu.au>]

There was an article in one of the American magazines that talked about
police riding in the cabs of some locos. They were able to witness,
first hand, the stupidity of car and truck drivers and write tickets for
them. Sound like this may also work in New Zealand or Australia.

Regards,
Michael milway.

John Regan wrote:
> 
> Today on the way back home driving a passenger train I had a near-collision
> with a truck carrying pigs.  It crossed infront of my train without
> stopping or even slowing, at a controlled crossing fitted with lights and
> bells on State Highway 1 about 75 kilometres north of Christchurch.  The
> crossing is on a straight stretch of road with good alround visibility.
> 
> Unfortunately for the driver of this truck there was a Police Officer on
> the southern side of the crossing stopped with another motorist whom he was
> busy giving a ticket.  He witnessed the whole thing and took off after the
> truck.
> 
> Train Control informed me later that the truck had been stopped and the
> driver dealt with.
> 
> I spoke to the officer on the phone who told me that the truck driver had
> been so engrossed in watching the cop with the motorist that he failed to
> see the flashing lights and hear the locomotive horn! (I had started
> hanging off the whistle when the truck was some 200 metres from the
> crossing until after I cleared the crossing and it was a very good horn the
> loco had).
> Apparently the truckie said that by the time he discovered there was a
> train bearing down on him he did not want to brake for fear of injuring the
> pigs so he kept on going and only just made it across the crossing by a bit
> less than 50 metres.  I was going 85 kmh at the time and he was going up
> hill.
> 
> It is not very often that a cop witnesses such an act of stupidity but it
> all fell into place today.  It will be interesting to see what the out come
> will be.
> 
> Cheers
> 
> John Regan
> Locomotive Engineer
> Christchurch
> NEW ZEALAND
> reganjd@clear.net.nz