“The TRAIN ALWAYS WINS!”

“The TRAIN ALWAYS WINS!”
3/28/02

Every now and then we get the call for a “Vehicle verses Train” collision.

Sometimes it’s a bogus call.

Sometimes it’s an intentional suicide.

But for the most part, when we get there and it’s a real “grinder”, it turns out to be someone who was in a hurry. Someone who misjudged the speed of the on-coming train and drove around the gates. Sometimes its kids, sometimes its adults, but all the time they turn up dead! The train that looks big and slow from a distance is actually a rolling missile when it goes by you. You know that! You’ve been the first car in line at a train crossing before.

I work primarily marine patrol now, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen such traumatic and shocking destruction and mutilation that can be done to the human body than by a fast moving boat and propeller. Except for what a fast moving train can do to a carload of people. It’s shocking.

Those trains are heavy. You have no idea how much horsepower it takes to pull the loads they do. And the thing about it is, if they suddenly see you on the tracks it isn’t like they can slam on the brakes to stop. It may take a mile or two to even get it to slow down…
You know what is really weird? It doesn’t make that much difference if the train is doing 30mph or 80mph. The sheer weight of that incredible power chews up whatever is in its way, and if it’s a vehicle on the tracks, that car will end up looking like it was demolished by a gigantic can opener!

You come up to the crossing gate and stop. You look left, you look right, and then you look down at your watch and see how late you are for work, or to pick the kids up from school, or to rush home with the kids to cook dinner.

You see the train in the distance and you hear that little voice inside of you that says “you can make it, go for it”. You look around to see if anyone is watching. In that second you looked around that train has traveled 50 yards. You look both ways again and move your foot off the brake and start creeping forward. Another second, Another 50 yards closer. You start to maneuver around the crossing gate, which takes a second or two, and the train is 100 yards closer than it was. And as you cross the first track and you get ready to punch it to safety when you hear a loud horn blasting and in your last second of living you look up to see the horrified face of the train engineer. And then you see – nothing.
All because that slow looking train approaching, traveled the length of 2 football fields in a matter of seconds. But it doesn’t matter because you’re dead!

I could tell you what happens afterwards but there’s no need. It’s too gruesome and kids read this page. But I can tell you this. You’ll look thinner in blue. You see, there are green body bags, black body bags, bright yellow body bags, red biohazard body bags, and nice pristine white ones…but everyone looks thinner in the blue ones….maybe it’s because all your parts aren’t there…

But hey! We recovered your watch 300 yards away near your demolished vehicle. Or what used to be a vehicle. Remember the one that let you know you were running late?

Why do you do it people? Why do you literally kill yourselves way before it’s time? If it rains and the streets are wet, you just have to speed up. If it’s foggy and you can’t see where you’re going, you just have to speed up. If the road is flooded and the signs say don’t cross, you just got to make the top story on the evening news by either looking like an idiot, or by getting dead. “Well I didn’t think it was that deep and I thought my Geo Storm could make it…” Snow? Who needs chains, let’s go! Go faster, faster… No passing zone? Yeah right….lets just see what this little 4 cylinder can do! I can pass these 3 cars long before that 18-wheeler gets up here. And then when you’re stuck between car #1 and car #2 with nowhere to go you start craping your pants because you knew you shouldn’t have tried this to begin with

This is the bottom line. Life is short. Really short. Ask any cop, firefighter, or paramedic just how much shorter it can be and they will tell you. Enjoy it. You only get one shot at reaching a ripe old age. S L O W D O W N! If you’re running late think up a good excuse. Or better yet, start leaving a half hour earlier if you’re a commuting road warrior always riding the edge.

And when it comes to trains…. In 24 years I haven’t seen a vehicle win yet…Remember this. T H E T R A I N A L W A Y S W I N S… Say it out loud right now. Go ahead, no one is listening. Get it in your head. Say it a bunch of times. And especially say it the next time you are stopped at a train crossing getting stressed out. Keep repeating it until the train crosses. “The train always wins.” Hey, if you pass any of our articles onto your young teens in the family, pass this one on. “The train always wins.”

Oh by the way, if you are the loser parents of these two 7 or 8-year old children who are made to walk home alone after school, across railroad crossings, along roads with no sidewalks where they could get hit by a passing car, or where they could easily be abducted, you ought to be …….. God, I can’t say it – I’m supposed to be a professional. Sometimes I hate being a professional.

Don’t lose the thought of the day…”The train always wins”
(You can get my other thoughts on “parents who shouldn’t be parents” in the archived story “Where have all the parents gone”)
Hey America, Stay safe out there.

NetCops P.S.I.
JL