Re: level crossing near misses, was Re: problems at ringwood

[Michael Kurkowski <mk@netstra.com.au>]

Hi,

I think it must be something about the whole Preston area in general. One
day a few years ago, the gates were stuck at Regent Street (a regular
occurance back then, am unsure as of now). My dad was one person stuck
waiting to get across, and witnessed a large number of people playing
russian roulette on that level crossing. 

Dad did a u-turn to get out of the mess and (since he was on the western
side of the line) drove up to the police station to report the situation.
By the time he got home, it was reported that there was a fatality at
that level crossing. A stupid bitch (and I will call anyone who runs a
downed boom at a level crossing) had taken the same risk that many others
had, and driven across the level crossing, only to be met by a train. 

I have no sympathy whatsoever for people who involve themselves in this 
situation, rather my sympathy goes to the driver of the train who is mostly 
traumatised by the incident. Not knowing for myself, I am still assuming 
that the trauma suffered by the driver of the train, to the knowledge that 
he had no power to stop his train from killing a person must be long 
lasting and extremely painful.

david said in message <380AA878.7B6E23A7@nmit.vic.edu.au>, I therefore
quote: 

>I  cross Cramer St at Preston  four working days a week, and I  shudder
>at the cars gambles. Those train come around so quick as to have no
>chance ( the same must be for Bell St as well ).  These days  when the
>bells go and the booms come down, they do not give enough time to try to
>clear the crossing ( something about not holding up the traffic, so we
>will reduce the warning time ).
>
>As others may wish to point out - who would fund such an advert ?

I'd imagine the families and any other victims would assist in such a 
campaign.

>
>I do worry. Trains do not stop on a dime ( motorists also think trucks
>stop on a dime too, but that's another story ).
>

I was in a taxi two weeks ago, and I can't believe what the driver did. 
Imagine being in the right lane, just behind a truck who is in the left 
lane. The truck's intention was to get into the right hand lane, and 
already had his blinker on and merging across, the taxi driver responding 
by driving beside the truck. The truck driver did not respond to the taxi's 
moves, basically forcing the taxi into an oncoming lane, taxi still gets 
around truck. It was lucky there was no oncoming traffic at the time (this 
was on Pascoe Vale Road, in Oak Park, if anyone knows what the traffic 
there is like of a morning).


>> People take the attitude "nah, it can't happen to me, it never has
>> before so it wont now". People also think that the train can stop, or
>> they won't get stuck on a crossing. People also think that just
>> because there is a blind spot not allowing them to see more than 25m
>> up/down the track, that there is no train.
>>
>
>And they may think they have enough time to drive off if the bells go -
>not these days !
>I hate to think of  the near misses the drivers see everyday !

People also have a habit of taking off /without looking/ immediately as the 
booms start lifting. Bad luck if the booms had failed and there is still an 
oncoming train (i.e. in the other direction). Does this happen often 
though?


>> You are right, we do need a TAC style ad campaign, however the other
>> issue to be addressed which is just as important, is pedestrian
>> traffic. "Oh, i cant hear the train, so there mustn't be one", never
>> mind that they are probably listening to a portable stereo, or the
>> train is a quiet one.
>>
>
>If you haven't seen a silent train - it will be the one to get you. I
>have noticed a Dynon to be very careful on escorted tours there, as a
>idling loco may move with little extra noise.

I stood at Kensington tonight, gunzelling H5 which was in the grain siding. 
Standing immediately next to the level crossing, there were a number of 
trains that I could not hear until they were within 5-10m of the level 
crossing. These trains were on the up, and consisted of a Sprinter, quite a 
few sparks (assorted comeng/hitachi) and at one point an N class loco. The 
N was the only one that could be heard from any sort of distance. My 
hearing isn't that bad either, so imagine being either in a car, listening 
to a walkman or hard of hearing. (I only knew the trains were coming 
because I was actually watching them through the lens of the camera :-))

>> I believe I may have mentioned this on past occasions, but I have seen
>> the stupidity that goes on, at the Bell Street / Bell Station level
>> crossing, having been committed to 6 years of secondary education
>> within that vicinity. Then there was the accident there. A train
>> (375M??) ran into a stationary truck. The train was going slowly, as
>> it had to stop at Bell Station, but still did not have enough time to
>> stop. A number of people on the train itself suffered minor injuries
>> as well, for this truck driver's stupidity.
>
>Yes it creates more chaos ( remember as well ) - Cramer Street fills to
>capacity with diverted traffic inviting the same thing !

Cramer Street already fills to capacity during peak, along with High Street 
(particularly in the shopping strip) and Bell Street. It's not uncommon for 
the Bell Street / High Street intersection to become gridlocked by 
impatient morons trying to get across before the lights turn red, not 
realising if they have have waited things would have gone a lot faster.

I guess the common problem at Bell, is that people waiting for the St 
Georges Rd intersection to turn green they decide to move forward onto the 
crossing. This is certainly the case with the truck mentioned above.

Having also seen the Bell level crossing stuck, I can tell you it's chaos 
when it happens. It's lucky that my car goes offroad reasonably well, 
because we only intended to go to a store which was before the level 
crossing but couldnt make it that far (we were just past high street, the 
store was about 50m from the station) so we just drove over the median 
street and into the street that runs alongside Bell Street Bus Company.

Sometimes education won't stop these idiots however. Just have a look at 
the response from the TAC ads. We still do have people doing 120-160kph in 
suburban areas, and we still have many people drink driving. Admittedly 
however, it has reduced these incidences.

Regards
Michael