Choo Choo !!!! Boom ...

According to fire officials, the driver of the tractor trailer was stopped on the railroad tracks waiting for the light to turn green on Tucker Road. During that time, Norfolk Southern Railroad activated its crossing arms. The tractor trailer was unsuccessful of clearing the railroad tracks and was hit by the train. Three locomotives and 10 railroad cars derailed and slammed into each other causing a disastrous mess. Two Norfolk employees sustained minor injuries and were transported to local area hospitals by HCEMS.

Yikes. Is that considered a tie then ?

I think they broke it.

The employees in the front locomotive had to endure knowing that crash was coming for a long time.

Wonder if the truck driver keeps the job. Seems like poor route pre-planning?, but maybe it don't work like that.
Here's an archive link to a different view, but lower quality.
https://files.catbox.moe/o9url0.mp4

Wowzers! Amazing no one was seriously hurt!

First thing I thought of..........

He needs his ass chewed at the very least. I haul bigger stuff than that and it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know that if there isn't enough room to get the WHOLE load past the tracks, you don't start across.

Kevin

That truck driver really screwed up I hope no one, including the truck driver and railroad employees got hurt

To steal words from History

“A Bridge Too Far”

Truck driver should lose his CDL permanently. He and his employer are going to be on the hook for millions of dollars beyond what the insurance covers. Wouldn't be surprised if both he and his employer file for bankruptcy.

you think the spotters would on the mic telling him to pull forward or back up just get your ass off the tracks

Or cleared the intersection and stopped traffic BEFORE the truck started across the railroad track crossing. Should have made it so he only had to stop before the crossing and held there, then the spotter(s) take control of the traffic light intersection and in one quick move had the truck go across the tracks, and through the intersection in one quick nonstop move when it was safer. DUH.

I looked at the map, this route is a mess.
The bridges don't look like they need a beam this big, I wonder if the poor slob took wrong turns and got into this dead end

That's how it's done assuming there were pilot cars required.

Kevin

It looks to me like it was a super load, so he would have a F&R escort vehicle, and a planned & approved route. This should have NEVER happened!

https://youtu.be/FAr8yosr7Z0

Hope they had REALLY GOOD insurance

I would bet that the lawyers for the Insurance Company(s) will claim that State and Federal laws were broken and they are therefore at least partially released from liability.

Which insurance company? The truck?

Truck insurance companies.

Railroad may be partially self insured, but if they have insurance it would cover the all too common illegal civilian road crossing behavior.

There have been proposals for years that railroads should be permitted to send out local AM and FM radio signals warning of approaching trains, even that car radios “turn themselves on” and warn of approaching trains at crossings.

In the mid 1980s when the railroads put in “axle counters and heat detector” boxes on the sides of their tracks that broadcast computer generated voice reports over their business radio frequencies, I took one of my employees suggestion (he was a Ham radio operator) to rebroadcast that voice report signal on our intercom system to forewarn that a train was approaching our 2 grade crossings. At that time about 24 trains a day were passing by, and we were in a curve in the track. We did not have an official RR crossing. We later rigged up our own private flashing lights that would trigger when the axle counter box sent out a radio signal.

Yes, as per my truck driving nephew, they are not supposed to block the tracks under ANY conditions. If necessary the driver should have waited before crossing the tracks until he could get his entire load across them.
Hope he wasn't an independent

That goes for any truck. If you can't clear the tracks in one move DON'T cross until you can. NEVER, EVER block a RR crossing. And if a car forces you to stop and a train is coming you have to push the car out of the way it's better to hit the car than have the train hit you. I've been driving a truck for 34 yrs it's just common sense.

I was replying to this particular comment:


Most semis carry either $1mil or $2mil in combined single limit liability coverage, meaning that their liability coverage is one lump sum that applies to property damage and bodily injury. That has to cover damage to the train, the crossing, any damaged cargo on the train (cargo being hauled by the truck is covered separately), any injuries on the train, as well as recovering and transporting the damaged train cars. No amount of arguing that the crossing is insufficient, etc. is going to get them off the hook from paying their full limits. The trucking co and driver are going to feel the wrath of the rail company, because the cost of this incident is going to be well over their insurance limits. Bankruptcy for both is entirely possible.

IIRC, there's also a prohibition against shifting when any part of the truck/trailer unit is over the tracks. The reason is because that's when driveline failures happen. It's primarily for loads that have to stop before crossing the tracks like busses, flammable, and hazmat. I suspect oversize would fall into that category but I'm not ambitious enough to research it this morning.

You are right it shouldn't have happened.

When I was a kid, not too far from the shop we owned a truck hauling a oil derrick hit an overpass.

The driver and trucking company had an planned and approved route from the State of LA. The state said it would fine clearance wise and it was approved.

The state said it was the trucks fault and tried to fine/bill the trucking company. Trucking company said the state approved the route it's the state's fault.

That taught me to never trust state approvals.

The last line on just about every permit I've ever seen says no matter what the permit says, if you hit it, you own it. Must verify all horizontal and vertical clearances before departure.

Kevin

We had an independent rig a few years back that was taking a shortcut from his approved using I-680, OOOPPSS , his laod was higher tha an overpass, made quite a mess