4 ms·

I can find you a dozen such crossings within an hour of my house. If you care to head into the properly rural part of any state, you'll find they're everywhere

I can find you a dozen such crossings within an hour of my house. If you care to head into the properly rural part of any state, you'll find they're everywhere. There ought to be flashing lights and arms at every one, but no one wants to foot that bill. Was the truck actively crossing the tracks when it got hit or was it disabled? I haven't found any explanation of why it was there.

dreamcompiler 4y ago
It seems to have been at least trying to cross, as it had been crossing for the past couple of days delivering rock to a levee project [1]. If you look at the crossing on Google maps [2] it's clear that the crossing is not at right angles. If the dump truck had been northbound at the crossing (and I don't know if it was), the driver would have had to turn his head more than 90 degrees to the left to see the train (which was coming from the west). Local residents had apparently been warning of the danger of this particular crossing for some time [1]. A mockup of the accident scene is at [0]. The lawsuits have begun [3]. One of the suits alleges that the trucking company failed to properly maintain its equipment, which suggests to me the possibility that the truck stalled on the tracks. [0] https://www.kansascity.com/news/state/missouri/article263060528.html#storylink=related_inline https://www.kansascity.com/news/state/missouri/article263060... [1] https://www.kansascity.com/news/state/missouri/article262969938.html https://www.kansascity.com/news/state/missouri/article262969... [2] https://goo.gl/maps/n7WNSFMiqYgbEQQp9 https://goo.gl/maps/n7WNSFMiqYgbEQQp9 [3] https://www.kansascity.com/news/state/missouri/article263084073.html https://www.kansascity.com/news/state/missouri/article263084...
SamPatt 4y ago
I don't care about such crossings, it's trivially easy to check for a train. I live in a rural area with many of these crossings and (to my knowledge) there haven't been any problems. I don't think this is an infrastructure failing as much as it is a "Why would we need that?"

dreamcompiler 4y ago

It seems to have been at least trying to cross, as it had been crossing for the past couple of days delivering rock to a levee project [1]. If you look at the crossing on Google maps [2] it's clear that the crossing is not at right angles. If the dump truck had been northbound at the crossing (and I don't know if it was), the driver would have had to turn his head more than 90 degrees to the left to see the train (which was coming from the west). Local residents had apparently been warning of the danger of this particular crossing for some time [1]. A mockup of the accident scene is at [0]. The lawsuits have begun [3]. One of the suits alleges that the trucking company failed to properly maintain its equipment, which suggests to me the possibility that the truck stalled on the tracks. [0] https://www.kansascity.com/news/state/missouri/article263060528.html#storylink=related_inline https://www.kansascity.com/news/state/missouri/article263060... [1] https://www.kansascity.com/news/state/missouri/article262969938.html https://www.kansascity.com/news/state/missouri/article262969... [2] https://goo.gl/maps/n7WNSFMiqYgbEQQp9 https://goo.gl/maps/n7WNSFMiqYgbEQQp9 [3] https://www.kansascity.com/news/state/missouri/article263084073.html https://www.kansascity.com/news/state/missouri/article263084...

SamPatt 4y ago

I don't care about such crossings, it's trivially easy to check for a train. I live in a rural area with many of these crossings and (to my knowledge) there haven't been any problems. I don't think this is an infrastructure failing as much as it is a "Why would we need that?"