LONG Trip report: Some idiot stuck on train tracks on my way to work.

[Elevens]

Every day on my way to work, I drive on a fairly busy four lane road. There are numerous traffic lights along the way, and at one point, I cross over a set of train tracks. It's a rare occasion that a train crosses (at least in the timeframe I cross the tracks), but they do come every now and then.

Today was a typical day. The traffic was busy, but nothing that would have caused me to be late or anything. As I was approaching the tracks, I noticed the traffic had begun dramatically slowing down to a halt. Luckily, I was able to cross the tracks before coming to a complete stop. I believe I had two, maybe three cars behind me that had also crossed the tracks. I didn't think much of it when I heard the familiar sounds of the train crossing bells dinging behind me as I sat in my car listening to my iPod ("Living Love Mad" by Led Zeppelin to be exact).

Suddenly, another sound could be heard over Jimmy Paige and the ringing bells. It started out slowly as a steady, yet frantic beat of a single car horn. Eventually, that single horn turned into an all out flood of car horns. It was too loud to distinquish the number or who/what (or why) they were honking at, but it seemed to be coming from all around me. My first instinct was that I was the culprit for all this noise and I did a quick scan around to see if I was doing anything wrong.

That's when I spotted the reason.

Apparently some idiot in one of the oncoming lanes thought it was okay to stop on the train tracks while waiting in traffic. Don't people know not to do this? I didn't think that this had to be taught, I thought this was common sense.

This when the fun begins.

At this point, I'm looking over my left shoulder at a red Dodge Durango facing the opposite way sitting on the train tracks. The train gate is down behind him and just a few feet from the back of his SUV. I'm sure if he had looked in the rear view mirror, the big red bulb was probably blinding him.

I quickly scanned the tracks to my left and saw that it was clear. I then turned around to my right, and in the distance, I could see the oncoming train and it's seeming bright-as-the-sun headlight.

I remember thinking to myself, "Holy $hit, this is like a goddamn movie," except that it was my head and eyes that were panning back and forth between the Durango and the train and not some movie camera (although, I did have an good soundtrack playing along). I have no idea how many times that my head turned back and forth watching the events unfold.

At some point it occurs to me that if this train actually hits the car, I might be in a really bad position to catch some flying shrapnel. I don't know if the people in front of me realized the same thing or not, but magically the traffic in front of me started to move and I was able to slowly move forward a few car lengths. I'd like to think that at least I was safe if the tragedy struck, and better yet I would be there to witness a Darwin Award in person.

After moving my car, my view wasn't quite as good as before, because trees blocked visual of the train. However, I still could see the Durango quite well, but from a farther (and hopefully safe) distance. At this point, he was a still honking his horn, but he had his head out of the driver's side window screaming at the top of his lungs.

Although the traffic in front of me had moved quite a bit, his lanes had only moved a few feet -- not quite enough for him to get completely off the tracks. It didn't appear that anyone was making any big effort to go bumper to bumper to make some room for this guy despite all the honking horns and him screaming like a litte girl out his window. I'm not sure if they were oblivious to his plight, or just plain stupid. Probably the latter.

Meanwhile the train is bearing down...

Finally cars started moving a bit in front of him. He continued honking, but for some reason, he still hadn't moved more than a foot off the tracks. I'm assuming that he was literally going through the deer in headlights syndrome as he stared down his fate coming toward him.

My side of the road is clear. Those that have moved on in front of me either didn't realize what was happening behind them or didn't care. The rest of us were either sitting there staring from our cars or some had come out to stand on the street. I could see that a few people were on their cell phones probably overloading the 911 center. I finally get out of my car, at which point I sacrifice my Led Zeppelin soundtrack for a better view.

Now that I'm out of my car, I can now hear the distinct sound of a train whistle and screeching brakes of metal on metal coming from my left (Remember, I'm standing outside facing the direction of the tracks now.) From my new vantage point, I can now see the front of the train, which makes this next part all the more interesting.

The guy in the Durango must have finally woken up from his trance and obviously began to panic as the realization set in that he was about to become puppy chow if he didn't get off the tracks soon. He finally started moving.

Okay, that's an understatement. He didn't creep off the tracks, or even move off the tracks quickly. He outright floored it.

As I said earlier, I can see a bit more now as I'm now perched on the median and I'm nearly standing in a bush. I can clearly see that there is plenty of room for him to get off the tracks safely (a semi-trailer could have parked there). I can also see that the train has stopped about a quarter of a mile up the from the crossing. The guy sure got lucky, right? I begin to think about turing back to my car, but this story doesn't end here.

Panic does odd things to people, because apparently, he wasn't able to see the same things that I could. Granted, he might not have been able to tell that the train had stopped and that he was, in fact, out of danger at this point. However, he had to be able to see the gap in front of him that was large enough for a few Durangos like his to fit, right?

Wrong.

Well... maybe he could, but to be on the safe side, he must have thought that it was okay to continue to speed away from the tracks as fast as the Durango's V8 would move.

He also apparently forgot about his brake pedal.

Over the course of the next few seconds, I watched (in slow motion, it seemed) a red Durango almost leap off the train tracks, and cover about fifty feet in a rabid attempt to save his (already safe) life.

Apparently, he decided that the best option to further distance himself from danger, that his best option was to drive down the middle of the two lanes. To accomplish this, he would need to get around a few vehicles, so he tried to fit his Durango between two cars on each of the two lanes. Stuck between the two cars didn't deter his attempts to get to safety, because his foot never left the gas pedal as his screeching rear wheels showed.

He finally succeeded in getting past the two cars as they got pushed to either side, but he promptly lost his battle when he tried to squeeze by a semi.

The semi won, but it's amazing how much of a Durango fits under one when given enough effort.

I don't know what happened after that, but surpisingly enough, I was only about five minutes late to work and I was able to catch the last of "Ramble On" as I pulled into the parking lot.

Anyway, I felt I had to share this with OOT. I hope you enjoyed the read and I refuse to do a damn Cliff Notes version. If it's too long, then don't read it. I apologize for the lack of pictures, but I didn't have a camera on me.

[youtalkfunny]

Cliff Notes: I watched an idiot who got caught in traffic on the train tracks as a train approached. Things got dramatic when the train locked up the brakes. Idiot could not tell from his vantage point that the train had stopped, and in a fit of panic, started unnecessarily ramming cars in front of him.

Review: The details of the rammings were not as clear as they could have been. But the drama leading up to them was compelling.

[GambleGamble]

"heres your sign"

[Andrew Karpinski]

Further, more reduced coles notes :
Someone almost died and I did nothing to help them, but allowed the incident to amuse me.

[By-Tor]

[ QUOTE ]
Further, more reduced coles notes :
Someone almost died and I did nothing to help them, but allowed the incident to amuse me.

[/ QUOTE ]

What exactely do you expect him to do? Ram the people in front of him out of the guys way? Maybe he wasn't in a Durango.

[Elevens]

[ QUOTE ]
Further, more reduced coles notes :
Someone almost died and I did nothing to help them, but allowed the incident to amuse me.

[/ QUOTE ]

That's a viewpoint, however I don't see what I could have done in the timespan I had. This whole incident occured in less time than it will take most people to read the story.

Damn, it was long, wasn't it?

[d10]

This is like the best story Ive ever heard.

[RoundTower]

OOT needs more trainwrecks.

[Sponger.]

[ QUOTE ]
OOT needs more trainwrecks.

[/ QUOTE ]

This story would have been way cooler if he named it something like "Official OOT trainwreck thread"

[Yeti]

[ QUOTE ]
Further, more reduced coles notes :
Someone almost died and I did nothing to help them, but allowed the incident to amuse me.

[/ QUOTE ]

Dude, do everyone a favour and go park on the tracks tomorrow.