I can't say it often enough...if you have no business being on the tracks, please stay off!
Stanwood man hit by train seriously injured
Wednesday, January 9, 2008
Stanwood man hit by train seriously injured
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5 comments:
"You may know who you are and where you are going … God may know who you are and where you are going … but, if the Dispatcher does not know whom you are and where you are going, then you'd better be on very good terms with God."
Your comment "I can't say it often enough...if you have no business being on the tracks, please stay off! " is quite true. However, in this case the pedestrian that was struck HAD to cross the tracks in order to get to the town of Stanwood. There is no alternate route for a pedestrian such as an overpass walkway.
YES - he made a very stupid mistake choosing to go under or around the crossing arms. YES - he misjudged the Amtrak train going 79 mph through a small town rather than the usual freight train that travels at 50 mph. There's absolutely no excuse for the very poor error in judgment of walking across the tracks when the crossing arms were down. However, I do resent the part of your comment "if you have no business being on the tracks....." because pedestrians have no other choice but to cross the tracks at this location in this small town. I really believe Amtrak needs to slow down when going through these small rural town where the very MAIN street of the town intersects with the tracks. It's not like Seattle or Everett where the tracks are removed from the main thoroughfare.
This pedestrian still was very wrong but I believe Amtrak going 79 mph which is 120 feet in a second is traveling much too fast through small towns.
I certainly didn't mean to cause any resentment, and was under the impression that the Hwy 532 overpass had a sidewalk. If that's not the case let me know.
Maybe Amtrak should slow down through Stanwood. Maybe there should be an overpass that is more convenient. Given that, we still have the issue of the crossing gates being down and someone on the tracks despite the warnings. If it's the only convenient crossing, then it's even more important to watch for trains and not try to beat them across out of impatience. I feel for this guy, and I hope he has recovered.
My main message still stands: "please be careful and always watch for trains."
Hwy 532 does have an overpass but for this man or anyone coming from his original location, it would have been an extra 10-12 block walk on a freezing cold morning to get to that overpass and back to the main street of town.
As I said in my original post, yes this man was wrong - very wrong - to try and beat the train but I firmly believe Amtrak needs to SLOW DOWN going through Stanwood. It's not like the tracks are on the outskirts of a town. There are main street businesses just a few feet away on both sides of the track.
79 mph is MUCH TOO FAST to be speeding through that area when the cars and trucks are restricted to 25 mph!
Pushing for a slower speed may be a job for the Stanwood City Council and Snohomish County. According to the State of Washington DOT:
Train Speeds
Who sets train speeds? Under the authority of law (RCW 81.48.030), the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission (WUTC) generally has the authority to set speed limits at all grade crossings in unincorporated areas and in all cities except those where populations are greater than 100,000 (such as Seattle, Tacoma, or Vancouver, WA). However, federal regulations preempt the state and cities from setting speed limits except where unique local safety conditions exist. As a result, the WUTC can set speed limits only where such conditions warrant a deviation from Federal Railroad Administration track safety standards."
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