A Midland sheriff's deputy found out the hard way that, no matter how urgent the call you're on, you need to look both ways before storming over a level crossing. A tip o' the hat to reader Glen W. for sending me the link.
According to a news report, the deputy behind the wheel was "taken to the hospital with minor injuries including bruising throughout his body". I think he's amazingly lucky not to have suffered anything more serious - and I bet he won't go through a level crossing like that again!
Peter
Man, that's a helluva way to learn!
ReplyDeleteTraining Day.
ReplyDeleteAt C&NW railroad we had a dual use form.
ReplyDeleteOne side was for reporting work related injuries.
The other side was for crossing accidents.
Most used form by far between those two.
That must've made a serious - and lasting - impression on The Long Arm Of The Law...
ReplyDeleteObviously the train engineer must be cited - and then imprisoned - for ignoring the police car's siren and lights. "Interfering with law enforcement," "obstructing justice," and "conspiracy to obstruct" if there was more than one person in the locomotive cab at the time).
ReplyDeleteI'm sure charges can also be brought against the CEO and other operating officers of the railroad as well. Such disregard for law enforcement cannot be tolerated.
Probably some charges, too, for the Severely Sexist man - surely a woman would not have done it - who designed the crossing barrier mechanism intended to prevent stupidity becoming painful (or fatal). Has Kamala Harris been contacted to see what she has to say about this incident?
Local government must immediately begin statewide construction of crossing overpasses - or train tunnels under them - to prevent future such occurrences, with majority cost being provided by the railroad.
With the evidence that trains use those tracks and ignoring the horn blasts from the engine of the train that nailed him because even an idiot knows that trains always blow their horn for every level crossing, that deputy was so anxious to go he didn't hesitate to throw himself and $150,000 of the people's property into the path of an oncoming train. I am impressed with the second video. None of the usual blasphemy and foul language I see in 99% of this kind of video. That is increasingly rare. A genuinely nice person.
ReplyDelete$150,000????
DeleteMore likely $40-60k, max. I recently was issued a new FIU, fully outfitted with all sort of cool stuff. Total price ran around $40k.
Stupid cop, trying to hurry to a call. We're derided as useless if it takes us more than 10 seconds to get to ANY call, then castigated as power-hungry maniacs if we drive fast to ANY call.
My bad. My experience was buying HMMWV for sensor platforms for about $80,000 and I figured those things ran about that and then add the radios, computers, gear in the back etc and rounded up.
ReplyDeleteAccording to a Russian crash video site(!), the officer was enroute to a child with breathing problems. May have actually been on the phone with said child, which might explain his lack of situational awareness.
ReplyDelete