Section 36 Ignoring Road Sign Level Crossing NIP

[Orionaut]

Not necessarily, I’ve seen trains passing through crossings that have barely started to close more than once!

Nope. Could be as little as five seconds.
We work on railways a fair bit, including several dozen level crossings. You'd be horrified at how often ******** try to jump the barriers!

In which case, the problem is inconsistency. If the trains always passed within 10 seconds or so of the barriers going down, people wouldn't get impatient and wouldn't try to beat the barriers.

Inconsistency=bad management!(As is unnecessary delays)

"Most" peoples experience "Most" of the time is that once those lights start flashing, you might as well get out your book and start reading because you will probabally be able to get through a whole chapter before you will be underway again.

Station just down the road works like this.

Station on left, train approaching from left

Train approaching station triggers barriers, Lights come on, barriers fall.

A minute or so later, train pulls slowly into station and stops.

Another couple on minutes pass, train pull's slowly out of station and through barriers, eventually after, oh, 5 minutes or so, barriers raise and road traffic can move again.

Why?? Surely this could be operated better with the barriers only coming down when the train is set to leave.

It is this sort of stupid MO that causes frustration and tempts people to take risks!

 

[ron3003]

Not every train is going to stop at that station though (good trains) so the system is working as intended.

 

[Orionaut]

Not every train is going to stop at that station though (good trains) so the system is working as intended.

This isnt the 1890's! And I dare say even if it was I reckon that Charles Babbage could have figured out a way for the barrier control system to know whether an approaching train is going to stop at the station or not.

 

[Vern1961]

Sadly as a retired railwayman, I have little to zero sympathy for anyone who fails to observe 4 b....y big red lights strobing in their face on approach to a level crossing. If your driving concentration is that poor, need to seriously think about handing your licence in before you kill yourself or someone else. Given that there have been derailments involving vehicles in front of trains (Lockington, Ufton, Heck albeit latter not at a LC) all involving significant loss of life of crew and passengers on the train, there is a particular duty of care on all road users to comply with level crossings, same as any other red light.

If it was up to me, LC misuse would = 5 year ban and car seized and scrapped.

 

[WB91]

Sadly as a retired railwayman, I have little to zero sympathy for anyone who fails to observe 4 b....y big red lights strobing in their face on approach to a level crossing. If your driving concentration is that poor, need to seriously think about handing your licence in before you kill yourself or someone else. Given that there have been derailments involving vehicles in front of trains (Lockington, Ufton, Heck albeit latter not at a LC) all involving significant loss of life of crew and passengers on the train, there is a particular duty of care on all road users to comply with level crossings, same as any other red light.

If it was up to me, LC misuse would = 5 year ban and car seized and scrapped.

I assume you have never made any mistakes in life? It was a stupid moment, my first ever offence in 7 years of driving and will be my last.

I might yet get banned so i will report back to you sir with the good news! I will also lose my job if that was to happen so maybe that is enough punishment for you?

 

[Vern1961]

I assume you have never made any mistakes in life? It was a stupid moment, my first ever offence in 7 years of driving and will be my last.

I might yet get banned so i will report back to you sir with the good news! I will also lose my job if that was to happen so maybe that is enough punishment for you?

Sorry but you come on a public forum, admit to committing an illegal act - how do you expect people are going to react. Not saying I've never made a mistake in nearly 40 years of driving/motor-cycling but when it comes to car vs. train, really it should be a no brainer. I'm sorry if I came across as negative, but when you've worked in a railway control office and heard the call come in from a driver on the emergency line that he's just hit a vehicle on a crossing and that there are likely casualties/fatalities, your blood kind of runs cold.

 

[WB91]

Sorry but you come on a public forum, admit to committing an illegal act - how do you expect people are going to react. Not saying I've never made a mistake in nearly 40 years of driving/motor-cycling but when it comes to car vs. train, really it should be a no brainer. I'm sorry if I came across as negative, but when you've worked in a railway control office and heard the call come in from a driver on the emergency line that he's just hit a vehicle on a crossing and that there are likely casualties/fatalities, your blood kind of runs cold.

Sorry! I do understand the seriousness of the offence/where you are coming from and like i have said i have no excuse for my actions.

I have recently completed a 4 hour driving examination for my current job and passed as a low risk driver, could i use this to help my case if i was to get summoned to court?

 

[Malt_Vinegar]

Snip

Let him without sin cast the first stone.

The OP has come in here with a very clear understanding he made a terrible mistake, and as such should be treated as such.

Save your chargrin for an unrepentant offender if you have to vent at someone.

 

[Deleted member 66701]

The Courts are totally clogged up with other more serious stuff (at least where I am).

More serious? Like what? As someone who has been around railways all my life (dad was a safety inspector, I did my work experience for regional railways, granddad on railways etc) the consequences of RLJ'ing can be catastrophic - my dad's best friend was a train driver who was killed by an RLJ'er.

My dad liasing with BTP used to go after RLJ'ers hard, I seem to recall most of them ended up in course rather than FPN's.

RE OP: Credit to you for recognising you've done something stupid and taking responsibility for it.

 

[Vern1961]

Let him without sin cast the first stone.

The OP has come in here with a very clear understanding he made a terrible mistake, and as such should be treated as such.

Save your chargrin for an unrepentant offender if you have to vent at someone.

Why? Actually the comment below yours pretty much sums up the situation, too. Yes I'm by no means a perfect driver but I've never gone through a red light either traffic control or level crossing. I do appreciate the offender has shown contrition for the act, though as I said posting about it on an open forum frequented by people from all walks of life (including the railway industry and the police force) might not have been the wisest course of action.

'nuff said on the matter from me, anyhoo.

 

[Malt_Vinegar]

Why? Actually the comment below yours pretty much sums up the situation, too. Yes I'm by no means a perfect driver but I've never gone through a red light either traffic control or level crossing. I do appreciate the offender has shown contrition for the act, though as I said posting about it on an open forum frequented by people from all walks of life (including the railway industry and the police force) might not have been the wisest course of action.

'nuff said on the matter from me, anyhoo.

I actually applaud the sharing. Maybe it will bring to the attention of others the potential for a mental slip in such a situation. After all, to err is to be human, to forgive is divine.

If it brings it front and centre of more people, his mistake (which caused no major issues btw) may yet save someone else.

We operate a friendly forum here, and we try ensure people are able to share.

 

[TheVoice]

In which case, the problem is inconsistency. If the trains always passed within 10 seconds or so of the barriers going down, people wouldn't get impatient and wouldn't try to beat the barriers.

Inconsistency=bad management!(As is unnecessary delays)

"Most" peoples experience "Most" of the time is that once those lights start flashing, you might as well get out your book and start reading because you will probabally be able to get through a whole chapter before you will be underway again.

Station just down the road works like this.

Station on left, train approaching from left

Train approaching station triggers barriers, Lights come on, barriers fall.

A minute or so later, train pulls slowly into station and stops.

Another couple on minutes pass, train pull's slowly out of station and through barriers, eventually after, oh, 5 minutes or so, barriers raise and road traffic can move again.

Why?? Surely this could be operated better with the barriers only coming down when the train is set to leave.

It is this sort of stupid MO that causes frustration and tempts people to take risks!

Is the station next to the crossing? Because if so it should be obvious why you wouldn't want to have an open crossing as a train pulls into the station, even if the intent is for it to stop.

 

[dvinell]

More serious? Like what?

Like Stabbings, Murders, Sexual Violence, etc.

Running a red light on a level crossing is likely to be below the radar.

 

[Deleted member 66701]

Like Stabbings, Murders, Sexual Violence, etc.

Running a red light on a level crossing is likely to be below the radar.

Those types of offences aren't dealt with by magistrate courts. Magistrate courts are especially set up to handle offences such at motoring offences (and others where the defendant is not entitled to a trial by jury) so arguing they don't have time to deal with them is nonsense.

 

[Orionaut]

Is the station next to the crossing? Because if so it should be obvious why you wouldn't want to have an open crossing as a train pulls into the station, even if the intent is for it to stop.

That is an entirely fair point.

But it doesn't detract from the wider issue that the reason why so many (!) people take such a chance to beat the lights at level crossings is that "Most" of time, once those lights start flashing, it will be a Looooong time before you will get under way again.

The problem of course is that while the needs of the railway have not changed since the 1890's, but the needs of road users has changed out of all recognition.

It would be nice to have a situation where interactions between busy roads and busy railways are avoided by making all such crossings fully grade separated. But not only would this be expensive. It would be structurally very difficult since many of these conflicts occur in the middle of towns.

 

[shauncr91]

I assume you have never made any mistakes in life? It was a stupid moment, my first ever offence in 7 years of driving and will be my last.

I might yet get banned so i will report back to you sir with the good news! I will also lose my job if that was to happen so maybe that is enough punishment for you?

What about the train driver who can't return to work because he's too stricken with grief or shock after he killed someone through no fault of his own because they can't see a strobing red light?

 

[peterwalkley]

I actually applaud the sharing. Maybe it will bring to the attention of others the potential for a mental slip in such a situation. After all, to err is to be human, to forgive is divine.

If it brings it front and centre of more people, his mistake (which caused no major issues btw) may yet save someone else.

We operate a friendly forum here, and we try ensure people are able to share.

Agreed.

You learn from your mistakes. The truly wise learn from other people's mistakes.

 

[WB91]

Why? Actually the comment below yours pretty much sums up the situation, too. Yes I'm by no means a perfect driver but I've never gone through a red light either traffic control or level crossing. I do appreciate the offender has shown contrition for the act, though as I said posting about it on an open forum frequented by people from all walks of life (including the railway industry and the police force) might not have been the wisest course of action.

'nuff said on the matter from me, anyhoo.

The reason why I decided to post on this forum was the urge to say something to somebody and I’m not in a hurry to tell my friends and family what I have done. Also it was to ask for advice.

Is it possible to be convicted of multiple traffic offences for the same incident? On the day in question the road was completely empty with no cars in either lane and i went through before the barriers started to fall, not that it matters.

 

[WB91]

Whatever happens I have definitely learned from my mistake.

I’m not an aggressive incompetent driver who goes around breaking the law at any given moment.

I will update for those who are interested as soon as I hear anything.

 

[ttaskmaster]

NVM