For some reason, I cringe because I feel the need to address this topic.
How stupid can you be to think that you can “beat the train”. But, the other day that is just what happened here in the Houston area. A 20 year old young man drove around a crossing guard that was blocking his vehicle.
Obviously, he thought he could “beat the train”, but guess what? He didn’t and guess who won that battle – of course, the train.
The 20 year old driver was killed – his 16 year old passenger was!
That’s right. Once again, a young teenage passenger paid the ultimate price for a friend’s stupid mistake.
This was a completely avoidable tragedy. The driver could have waited. And when he didn’t, the passenger could have protested and possibly stopped his action. Apparently, that didn’t happen either.
Two lessons here:
- You should never drive around a railroad crossing arm that is in the down position – it’s there for a reason. If you are tempted to do so, then you need to take a deep breath, blow it out s-l-o-w-l-y, then repeat that process. You’re probably in too much of a hurry and you would do well to ease off a bit.
- If you’re a passenger, take responsibility for your own life. Speak up if you need to. If necessary, tell the driver to stop and let you out. It’s your life – protect it.
Because of their size, trains appear to be moving faster than they are – it’s an optical illusion. We’ll discuss that in more detail next week.