I know we ran into (pun?) stories like this before, but I really can't find them anywhere in a good context.

Anyway...
Omg u crshd n2 a train!
I am assuming he hit the side of the train, especially since drinking was involved.

And then theres this one that's all over [the place] right now.
Police officer saves woman from oncoming train
Officer describes train rescue
They are touting it as heroism. Yes; I applaud his action, but was there really a big risk to the Cop? From the video, it looks like there was plenty of time, and they even didn't look like they are in any hurry. (which they extol as "calm")
I really think it is a cop out (pun) by the news media, because it is an interesting situation, and any other take on the story will end up offending the lady making her sound like an idiot. (which she was, in my opinion)

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Numbers are not case sensitive. (me)

Any chance to blow sunshine up the butt of someone in uniform.

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I'm not completely heartless, the doctor who removed it told me he'd never be able to get it all.

In the video she looked drunk to me - before the train hit her car.

I saw that too, but I chalked it up to rough terrain. Especially since the officer spoke of reasons why she made the mistake and didn't mention possible alcohol involved.

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Numbers are not case sensitive. (me)

You're right. Better to give someone the benefit of the doubt. Looks can be deceiving.

Deja vu all over again...
Couple rescues driver from railroad tracks
I guess if you can mistake tracks, then a ditch is even easier to drive into.
Construction Ditch Causes Several Accidents Near Diner
Wouldn't you start to question the visibility of it after the first one?

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Numbers are not case sensitive. (me)

I'm sure this whole story is/will be discussed elsewhere on the board, and should be. I'm only posting it here for the one aspect of the story.

Mother Of Space Station Astronaut Killed
There just sounds like some bad judgement made in there somewhere.

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Numbers are not case sensitive. (me)

Starting with turning 90 and not turning in the keys...

We condition old people to think the world revolves around them, and they're dangerous enough as pedestrians.

I remember damned near killing two old women who jaywalked in front of me holding their hand up to stop traffic because that's where they wanted to cross. I locked up on them just to be a bugger for their stupidity.

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I'm not completely heartless, the doctor who removed it told me he'd never be able to get it all.

There are medical conditions that give the appearance of drunkenness so lacking a blood sample or some other evidence it's impossible to tell.

I'd like to make a point about drinking and driving and some consequences I don't think too many people are aware of. You might know about how many lives are lost by this habit. It sounds sad and most have empathy but it's easy to forget unless it's someone you love or personally know. For instance if I told you a good friend of mine killed himself with alcohol poisoning you might have a little empathy right now but a year from now it would be just another fact you may or may not recall. Not much permanent impact on you.

Here is the point: Where I'm at, state licensing boards can deny or revoke your license if you have a DWI conviction on your record. I'm not talking about your drivers license. You might loose that also. Suppose you are a CPA. You will loose your certification. You will loose your ability to get a job as an accountant. That's not the ½ of it. You will have ****ed off your degree, what ever that cost. You will have squandered all the effort you made to pass a test you probably couldn't pass again (Can't Pass Again). lol.

That is just a part of the consequences. You will be fined. You might go to jail. You will pay lawyers. All of that has the potential to run into tens of thousands of dollars. Your life will be ruined. You will be taught a lesson. Loosing that license will follow you and haunt you no matter where you go.

There have been cases where people have lied on their applications about dwi's and have had a marvelous career up to the moment they were getting ready to retire. Companies are starting to do background checks on people at that point in their career. They have been discharged with cause. They have lost any retirement they hoped to have.

I'm not interested in discussing the idea of double jeopardy. I just wanted to make the point that a cheap shot of your favorite poison might not be nearly as cheap as you might think.

Cheers.

hmmm...that could drive a guy to drink....

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Todd (Bowie, MD, US, North America, Earth, Sol System, Vega region, Local Bubble, Orion arm, Milky Way Galaxy, Local Group, Virgo A Cluster, Virgo supercluster, the universe in which spock is clean shaven)

Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum sonatur.

personal page: http://blog.astrosketches.info

tdvance,

Drinking won't cause the train wreck but drinking and driving could derail your life where I'm at. I thought it was interesting and I didn't think too many people knew about it.

I do see the humor.

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www.bessler007.blogspot.com

Deja Vu.

Man using GPS drives into path of train
I wonder if he had his rating for IFR, or he was still required to use VFR.

Why look? Technology is always right.

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I had a friend in high school, well before GPS, that was like that. He'd be driving, I'd be navigating, and I'd say "make a right". He would literally make a right at that moment, into someone's driveway or on to the lawn. I had to remember to say "at the next street, make a right".

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At night the stars put on a show for free (Carole King)

Score one more for a brighter humanity.

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I'm not completely heartless, the doctor who removed it told me he'd never be able to get it all.

We did that too (on occasion), but it was always well understood that it was a joke. (it also helped us hone our skills for road rallys)

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Numbers are not case sensitive. (me)

The stories are so similar (GPS onto railway line) that one might suspect urban myth, but this is BBC reporting!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/south_west/6646331.stm

The silly girl opened one crossing gate, drove through and then noticed another gate. She was lucky to be opening that when the train came along.

Darwin fame would beckon, but she was unharmed!
JOhn

There oughta be a law that would allow the officers responding to throw her on the tracks and let the train have another go at her.

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I'm not completely heartless, the doctor who removed it told me he'd never be able to get it all.

Well; not quite.
The first one, the guy actually turned onto the tracks.

The other one, was just a crossing, and she probably would have been in the exact same situation without the GPS. Even if she picked the shorter route from a map, she would have ended up in the same situation.

To me, it sounds like some really strange crossing.

Why didn't she open both gates first, or took a closer look as to why they were there, or why she didn't notice steel things running across the road and into the dark.
And what about this "is the light green" sign. What light? did she see one?
No; relying on the satnav was the smallest part of the story IMO. It fits better in the Not my fault thread.

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Numbers are not case sensitive. (me)

My dad was an engineer for the Rock Island; one of the last 4 line employees before they shut down for good. Hitting cars was fairly regular for them - or at least not as rare as you'd think it should be. I believe he hit a couple dozen or so in his carreer.

So with our immediate family and 8 pairs of aunts/uncles all living in the same community, and the humongous number of crossings in Chicago's South Side and 1st ring suburbs, it was just a matter of time before he hit a relative.

So he comes home from work one day and just nonchalantly mentions that he nailed Aunt Violet with the Morning Commuter Express at the 143rd Street crossing. Luckily she survived.

Everyone should know better, but growing up in that area people just get complacent because errant gates, long delays, and the sheer volume of crossings desensitizes people. If you grow up there running gates is just part of driving. You just need to be very sure of what you are about to do. The most dangerous is blindly following someone else or going around someone blocking your vision. Also, many people were hit by jumping the gun immediately after a train passes; seeing too late that another was coming from the other way.

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Don of Borg - Cool, Calm, Collective.

"Within the next generation I believe that the world's leaders will discover that infant conditioning and narco-hypnosis are more efficient, as instruments of government, than clubs and prisons, and that the lust for power can be just as completely satisfied by suggesting people into loving their servitude as by flogging them and kicking them into obedience." -- Aldous Huxley