US – Not a day goes by in the Handy Shipping Guide office without another sad tale from somewhere around the world involving an accident between a road vehicle and a moving train, the nature of level crossings making them inherently dangerous places for freight and passenger, motorised or pedestrian traffic alike. Every few weeks we hear a cry from somewhere to stop the slaughter by introducing better controls over passage across the rail tracks but cost and the complexity or remoteness of many of the sites make it nearly impossible to preclude such incidents.
The photograph which accompanies this piece however shows the result of what is a typical road/rail accident, but whereas we usually baulk at such tales this one is worth a retelling. The words are those of Tommy Johnson, Safety Director at Big M Transportation/Diesel Express whose “rearranged” Volvo you can see in the picture,
“One of our Volvo VN 780s pulling a load of rolled paper was approaching the Alabama State Docks in Mobile. Train tracks crisscross much of the port area, and not all of the crossings are equipped with warning signals or crossing arms. At approximately 10:00 a.m. our driver, a seasoned veteran of the road, approached a crossing with neither signals nor crossing arms - only a guard shack to his right. The glare of the bright sun impaired his view down the track. As he proceeded to slowly cross the track he was struck on the right side of the cab by an oncoming train travelling at approximately 20 mph. The impact spun the tractor-trailer sideways, dragging it 200 feet down the track.
“The tractor then impacted a loading dock, which tore it loose from the train. With the truck now stopped, the driver crawled out the drivers-side window onto the loading dock completely unharmed – not even a scratch.
“The damage to the cab was so severe you could barely tell it was a Volvo. It looked more like a cab-over. However, the motor had dropped under the tractor and the steering wheel pushed up and away from our driver just as it was designed to do, not only saving his life, but keeping him injury free.”
Volvo Trucks are naturally delighted at another fervent endorsement of their safety record but isn’t it about time that authorities world wide took a long, hard look at the lax standards surrounding these crossings ? After our story in January on the California “Super Train” which, at almost 3 ½ miles long can take several minutes to clear a crossing, the temptation to “beat the lights” is even greater. In the meantime perhaps all of us who need to use these crossings should realise that, unlike the wayward Big M driver, we are highly unlikely to live to tell the tale.
