Large fiery explosion of death!

[Amethyst Hunter]

As a driver, there are two things I never ever fuck with: semis and trains.

I have seen and heard of too many accidents (including fatalities) involving both and somebody who attempted to challenge either.

I hate train tracks too. I keep a healthy distance from one whenever I'm driving and those guardrails come down - my dad once told me a story about seeing a freight train pass through and there was a big chain on the end of one boxcar that was swinging loose. Had something been close enough to be struck by it, that chain would've cut clean through. It makes me very nervous if I'm riding in a car and the driver pulls up really close to the guardrails and a train's coming through.

Seriously, people - the bigger object will pwn j0ur @$$ EVERY TIME.

[Great Unknown]

One hitch would disqualify the amazingly idiotic driver from a Darwin this time. If a Darwin Award candidate kills others who aren't being stupid in the process of getting nominated, they're out of the running. Serves to quelch some of the competitiveness for getting the most deadly Darwin, I guess.

[protege]

Speaking of the Darwin Awards...there's one for a guy who wanted to see how close he could put his head to a moving Conrail freight...and apparently only bloodied himself

I'm always careful about trains and semis...mainly because they can punt my Corolla a huge distance without even trying. That said, I've had a close call though. On the way to work one morning, as I'm coming across the tracks (right by Carnegie Mellon U...the freaking gates came down! No warning bells, no blinking lights, otherwise I'd have stopped. I had to literally floor it to get out of the way. Another second or two, and the train would have hit me

Even now, if I can't see a train, I always stop and look before going across. You never know if the signals are working correctly--they usually are, but storms or flooding can make them give false readings. That is, the lights could be on, but there's no train coming...or worse, the train is there, and the things don't work! It's just not worth messing around when safety is concerned.

[repsac]

There are some pretty interesting videos on youtube about trains hitting various things. Though, perhaps the neatest I've ever seen (no fatalities) was an F40 cabbage (unpowered cab control locomotive) that had struck a truck tanker trailer. There was a huge explosion, and the resulting heat burned all the paint off the locomotive. You could see everything from Phase 1 (the first paint scheme) through to the current one.

[Andara Bledin]

There are some impressive & scary videos out there, all right.

There is one particular one that is a warning about double tracks. The lights are going, there is a train clearly stopped on the tracks. But the people trying to cross can't see the second train coming on the far set of tracks.

There are a couple of videos about bleves that are a sight to see, too. And a news report of a train vs tanker that explodes rather impressively, too.

^-.-^

[Dark-Star]

Seriously, people - the bigger object will pwn j0ur @$$ EVERY TIME.

Words to live by! Literally, *live* by!

I hate driving around semis with a passion. The wind turbulences around them throws off my (already poor) senses of direction and aim. And that's if we're in the van, and not in our little compact...

[Andara Bledin]

Speaking of the bigger object having automatic right of way, regardless of the laws...

I have a friend who had a semi change lanes into the lane she was using. She was in the left-most lane (he had no right even being there in the first place, it's agains the law in California), and there was no shoulder. He literally pushed her car into the center divider and it caused her to flip over. He never stopped and nobody got his plate. Thankfully she wasn't hurt, but her car was pretty heavily damaged.

On another note, I once got extra credit in my driver's education class (back when they still did that in public school) for knowing why you don't drive next to a semi in certain places if you can avoid it. The depressing part is that in that class, I only raised my hand after everybody else failed to raise theirs because I wanted to give others a chance at it since most of this was just the most basic common sense to me.

^-.-^

[Lingering Grin]

I've seen locomotives hit things...and the end results aren't pretty. No matter what vehicle you're in...if you get hit, you *will* lose.

Unless you're driving a bigger train

or, I wonder what would happen in a train vs tank collision.

[powerboy]

Speaking of the bigger object having automatic right of way, regardless of the laws...

I have a friend who had a semi change lanes into the lane she was using. She was in the left-most lane (he had no right even being there in the first place, it's agains the law in California), and there was no shoulder.

I hate driving around Semis. Only because one day, I was the freeway going home. And a Semi got into my lane while I was right there in his sight. I could see his face in his side mirror. He didn't look. And yes I called the company and trashed them a new one.

I hate driving by train tracks. It is because I was so many times to this one job of mine. Only one way in/out and every which way you could go, there was train tracks. And because I am never sure when the arms will go down.

[Andara Bledin]

Any time I notice that the people in front of me are too stupid/clueless/dangerously unaware of their owns surroundings to not stop on top of the train tracks, I leave an extra car length between me and the tracks so they have someplace to go if a train comes.

I so have no interest in watching someone get pasted by a train.

^-.-^

[Broomjockey]

or, I wonder what would happen in a train vs tank collision.

James Bond movie "GoldenEye" covers that. Tank shoots train, train hits tank. Tank is in many many pieces, train is slightly exploded from being shot.

I imagine the reality would be somewhat similar (though the train's less likely to be shot).

[crazylegs]

or, I wonder what would happen in a train vs tank collision.

Well, MBT is in the region of 60-80 tons in weight, train probably treble that (at least) travelling upwards of 100mph, yer, what Broomjockey said.

[Finance Gopher]

I concur with Broomjockey, though, the train is probably as functional as the tank after that collision.

If you notice truckers driving crazy late at night I recommend calling the state police (US) or whatever constabulary is responsible elsewhere. In my experience, no police get dispatched, but the cops get on the CB and all-a-sudden the truckers are doing exactly the speed limit both up and down-hill. Such a treat.

Even with the craziness I've witness on the highway (I was the wheelman for my college mock trial and ballroom dance teams), I have yet to see something that stupid on a crossing. If the train had been carrying a gas canister, and if it had ruptured, well. Let's just put it this way. The last I heard the standard policy was not to fight the fire, but to establish a one mile radius exclusion zone. The explosion can be that big.

[Andara Bledin]

The last I heard the standard policy was not to fight the fire, but to establish a one mile radius exclusion zone. The explosion can be that big.

Examples of why they establish a radius, courtesy of YouTube (bleve = boiling liquid expanding vapor explosion):

#1 - outstanding science class demo of a pure bleve using liquid nitrogen
#2 - grainy news footage
#3 - an excellent example of a fire-initiated bleve for a product stress test
#4 - impressive bleve from a Spike amazing videos show
#5 - derailed train with 2 separate bleves
#6 - a rare car explosion - probably another bleve - gotta have sympathy for that truck driver, and whoever had to clean that bus...
#7 - more burning > booming

^-.-^

[Ironclad Alibi]

In one crossing gate incident I read about, the driver of a car decided not to wait for the train and drove around the gates. He ran head first into another driver doing the same thing from the other side. The train missed them both.