Fatal train accident, Barneveld (the Netherlands)

[oknotsen]

A train accident just happened a few hours ago in Barneveld (the Netherlands).

Now these things happen every day, which does not make them less painful or dramatic, but you don't get that surprised by them anymore. But this accident has something special to it which is why I wanted to share this with you.

Please don't be shocked by the picture. It is bad, but slightly less bad then it looks (still bad though).

The good news is that both man and woman who were in the car survived the accident (although the woman was badly injured). Other good news is that, although probably shocked by the accident, nobody in the train got hurt.

The bad news is, and that is why this story got my attention and why I wanted to share this with you is this:
The accident happened on a crossing. The driver made a wrong interpretation and ended up stuck on the tracks with a train coming their way. Both people in the car panicked. An innocent bystander jumped into action and with his help the people in the car managed to get out and survived the accident... but the man who helped did not survive .

Someone died as a hero tonight.

Link to the news item (in Dutch).

 

[RoysTrainz]

OMG,
How can that happen in such a small country where there is no room left for anything and getting on the stuck on the tracks. How could the hero not think of a train coming?? with all respect to him those trainz make a hell of a noise or was it in a dead corner? Unbelievable sad.

Roy

 

[oknotsen]

Knowing our crossing system, I am pretty sure he knew the train was coming.

 

[slave-driver]

OMG,
How could the hero not think of a train coming?? with all respect to him those trainz make a hell of a noise or was it in a dead corner?

Yes trains do make a lot of noise, especially when your next to them or they are going by. However when the train is still coming at you they don't make that much noise at all. I've work next to active railroad tracks quite often and even diesel powered trains are not that loud until they are upon you. If you preoccupied with something else, like saving someone elses life, the horn or whistle may not register on you until it's to late. Looking at the picture I can just see in the upper left corner what looks like a pantograph wire. If that was an electric train, which I think it was, then they are even quieter than diesels. Still a sad thing to happen.

Bill

 

[JCitron]

How sad. I feel for the hero and not the people that caused the accident.

How can the driver make that kind of mistake and turn on to railroad tracks? He must not have been paying attention to where he was. Some people pay more attention to what a GPS is telling them than where they're supposed to be going.

http://www.masscops.com/threads/driver-blames-gps-system-for-car-train-collision.62359/

John

 

[oknotsen]

How can the driver make that kind of mistake and turn on to railroad tracks? He must not have been paying attention to where he was.

Turns out the driver and his wife are 92 years old. That might explain their panic and (I fear) their driving skills.
Our dead hero was 31 years old.

 

[JCitron]

Turns out the driver and his wife are 92 years old. That might explain their panic and (I fear) their driving skills.
Our dead hero was 31 years old.

That would, sadly, explain a lot. At 92 they shouldn't be licensed, but that's another whole issue we're dealing with everywhere today.

John