The thing that struck me most about the story of the woman who died when her car became stuck between the barriers on a level crossing is that she would have only had 30-40 seconds from the time the barriers came down to when the train smashed into her.
Whatever the rights and wrongs of the safety situation (I have no knowledge of that particular crossing’s operation) or whether she should have immediately have abandoned the vehicle, that really isn’t a very long time to react.
30 seconds to decide on what to do. 30 seconds to unstrap your seatbelt and get out of the car. 30 seconds to make sure any passengers were out safely too. 30 seconds in which to panic and freeze.
If it had been me I’d have had two children to unstrap and get out.
Scary.
4 responses so far ↓
1 Ys // 6th Jan 2009 at 10:26 pm
Thankfully the train barriers always come down in plenty of time by me. I’m always scared when crossing them cos I’ve seen too many Casualty episodes where things like this happen.
2 TigerFeet // 7th Jan 2009 at 12:12 pm
It’s such a sad story. It happened just round the corner from where I work and I know people who knew the poor woman who died.
How many times do we get caught at train barriers and curse the length of time it takes for the train to come and the barriers to rise again? I have to cross a train line to get to school/work and the number of times I’ve sworn at it if I’m running late…. I never will again :o(
3 Sheila // 7th Jan 2009 at 1:32 pm
Only a couple of weeks ago I crossed (at Wadborough) and before I had gone 400 yards the other side, a train came past. That is not enough of a margin to allow time for the barriers to come down. I never know whether it is better when the barriers are not down, to go slowly and crawl out until I can see whether it is really safe or whether assume there’s nothing coming because the barriers aren’t down and belt across as fast as I can.
4 blue soup // 14th Jan 2009 at 6:11 pm
There’s a level crossing near where I live. It’s very close to a roundabout and sometimes, at peak traffic times, the queue from the roundabout backs right up so that cars are queuing over the crossing! I feel The Fear when I drive over a level crossing in general, but some people actually wait on them! That is very scary!
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