norfolksouthern37
what's a normal map?
Norfolksouthern 37 the vehicle in question in this incident proceeded within the law accompanied by a police escort. Therefore if the driver was instructed by his company or the police in escort to proceed as he did then there can be no question of responsibility on his part. Road traffic vehicles have precedence over rail traffic on that crossing or any other when the signs and signalling are in their favour, that is the law
If the driver was instructed by his company or the police escort in error then it isnt Amtrak's fault either. As I said, Amtrak did not place the truck in front of it to be hit. There is no evidence that anyone did their job when deciding if that low body truck could cross a railhead be it the company, or the police escort, or the truck driver who should have been able to discern the danger of crossing this track with his load. Furthermore, there is always a contact for the railroad responsible for the crossing at the crossing (and there is certainly one at this crossing it can be seen in the images or on google street view). Events may have happened too quickly after the truck was already stuck, that is unknown, but anyone could have called the railroad if there was any doubt beforehand.
On a lighter note, I'd bet that the trucking company would love to have you on their defense team to somehow make this out to be the fault of the railroad. something that was already there and functioning before the trucker got his haul stuck on top of it.

I guess there would be many places you can try to throw blame, but the train crew and passengers are not responsible in any way. The only way the railroad could be responsible is for not having protection and signage at the crossing - all of that was there. I did notice that there are not any signs warning low trailers of the rise at the crossing. That would be a road signage problem and without going back to look I am not sure if this is a state or county aided roadway.
Look around your house or local supermarket and ask yourself, how much of the goods you see in front of you was delivered from the back of a truck and how much was delivered from the back of a train. In the answer you will realize the importance and predominance of the road transport industry.
With respect, I do not think you can appreciate the amount of freight that is transported via train in this country. The above may be true for you, but in this country there would be hardly any difference in what items were transported by train or by truck. I would wager that the US hauls more freight by rail than anywhere else. The above train involved in the accident is only one of very few passenger carrying trains here. This is a vast land and much more cargo is transported over these long distances by train than by road. A great deal of the road trailers and containers are on trains first. In a general sense, the trains haul the cargo to the hubs and the trucks distribute it. No I am not saying there are no long distance truck routes but when you consider that a single train in this country can haul what 200 trucks can, the choice is obvious. 40% of freight moved in the US is by rail, 28% by truck according to the US DOT. If I do in fact look around my house there is a good chance that most of the items were once on a train in the trailer of a truck before they were on the road headed for my local retailer.
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