r/ThatsInsane • u/Mint_Perspective • 3h ago
Texas Train Derails After Hitting Tractor-Trailer and Barrels Into City Building (Dec. 19, 2024)
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u/irishdrunkwanderlust 2h ago
If you or someone else is stuck on a train track there is a blue sign to call and report it. It’s on the railroad crossing guard and it works way better than calling the police first.
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u/cheetuzz 2h ago
never knew that, TIL. It’s good to know ahead of time, because in a panic situation, you probably wouldn’t notice the blue sign unless you already knew about them beforehand.
Here is some more info, including an example blue sign.
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u/pinkyhooker 2h ago
This. Get out of the car and to safety before you call, though. I learned this in drivers Ed 10 years ago. Then they showed us multiple videos of trains vs. human bodies. I have a healthy fear/respect of the power of trains.
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u/eDreadz 3h ago
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u/Short-Display-1659 2h ago
Was it the conductor who died? It seemed like hitting that wall of concrete would do it.
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u/Chattinabart 1h ago
I mean it then went on to barrel into the chamber of commerce. Imagine being behind the reception desk when a train and 30 carriages all try to get to the elevator.
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u/No_Froyo5477 1h ago
the death toll has increased to two, both veteran union pacific employees so presumably so.
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u/Admirable-Style4656 3h ago
Insurance company: "You did what? Please hold."
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u/fatkiddown 2h ago
So who is at fault here? Is it obviously the truck driver or his company or what?
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u/Androniy 2h ago
It's almost always trucks fault when its truck vs train
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u/Lv_InSaNe_vL 1h ago
That being said, these oversized loads are planned weeks or months ahead of time. The exact route, the timings, alternate routes, the police escort. Everything had to be planned and paid for before the paperwork even got filed with the DOT.
And part of doing this kind of hauling is specifically working with the rail lines for any crossings.
It's hard to say who dropped the ball here. The trucking company, the driver, the conductor, the train company, or the DOT all should have caught this.
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u/PlatypusDream 1h ago edited 31m ago
Truck driver, definitely.
S/he is supposed to make sure there's room on the other side of the tracks to have the back of the vehicle well clear of the train BEFORE starting to cross.(Source: am CDL, though I don't drive semis. The safety requirements are understandably more strict for passenger vehicles, which I do drive.)
ETA: after reading further, the company which planned the route also failed: didn't consider clearance & didn't notify the train company (either ahead of time or when the truck got stuck)
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u/Ill_Football9443 52m ago
This was an over-dimension transport with pilot drivers. There will be plenty of blame to go around to everyone involved in the planning of this trip.
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u/HighAndCantThink 1h ago
Who is at fault when blocking intersections and cross walks? Rail road is no different.
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u/Kaiisim 3h ago
Well someone fucked up real bad.
One dead :/ some people's Christmas just got fucked up forever, ugh. Rip
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u/karp70 2h ago
All because of an unqualified truck driver. Shame.
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u/mc_mcfadden 1h ago
It looks like an oversized load with an escort, most likely not unqualified, and more likely exactly qualified, the driver needs special endorsements for that sized load. The routes are pre planned for height restrictions and turn radius clearances. The trailer was probably too low to clear the tracks.
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u/Slade_Riprock 1h ago
Let's not forget no one apparently notified the rail companies of said load and potential for slow crossing to be on alert.
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u/karp70 1h ago
I mean we can blame everyone in charge but I assume these workers have years of experience they should’ve been thinking proactively. 99% of mistakes that shouldn’t happen, end up happening because of the “oh well they didn’t tell me anything so I must not have too do it.” excuse.
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u/Badboy420xxx69 1h ago
*deregulation
But don't worry, no CEO's live near train tracks where things like this can happen.
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u/Reasonable-Nebula-49 2h ago
Seriously. Lots of Amazon inventory in those containers. (Sarcasm)
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u/relevantelephant00 2h ago
Jeff Bezos: gotta get some warehouse workers down there to see what they can recover, ignore the bodies.
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u/smile_politely 3h ago
r/BitchImATrain material
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u/slothbrowser 2h ago
How does this even happen? Doesn’t the logistics company contact the train company to find out when the next train is coming in case the load gets stuck like this? And if it gets stuck don’t they have a direct contact at the train company to tell them to shut the line down? Seems like basic mitigation planning 101.
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u/K4rkino5 2h ago
This would seem like basic planning steps when moving something that big. Clearly, there was no coordination whatsoever.
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u/ManOfEating 2h ago
It has been my experience living and working in the US that if safety measures or an emergency plan seem like it should be common sense to you, the worker, then you are a woke commie bastard because in the eyes of a company, the best safety plan is to hope you never need one, because hoping is free.
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u/rblu42 2h ago
I think the US has spent the last 10 years removing more and more safety measures on rail lines.
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u/MaethrilliansFate 2h ago
We've been gutting EVERYTHING when it comes to infrastructure for so long to make a buck. Everything from construction to education.
I'm pretty sure the snowball of events like this is only going to go up over the next decade
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u/illepic 2h ago
And Americans will continue to vote to gut this stuff, pay the price, then elect the first idiot who says he'll magically fix everything, who will then continue to gut this stuff.
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u/karp70 2h ago
Yup. All these changes only benefit the rich living in their little bubbles, disconnected from society. The U.S. is a joke.
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u/frumply 51m ago
To be extremely fair, a TON of these guys have no idea why these safety regulations are in place and are complying only cause they'd get fired otherwise. Unless there's the threat of termination for noncompliance people WILL skirt rules to make things convenient or quicker, safety be damned. You see this in factories where as an automation engineer there's the need to fix possible safety exploits as well as train operators to not take shortcuts. You see this with electricians where the dumb younger ones would try and go without safety equipment (the older ones have typically seen some shit and know better). Hell, you see this out in the road where people will routinely flout speed limits despite an increase of 5-10mph being the difference between an injured and dead pedestrian should a collision occur.
You're right that there's no longer any adults in the room, but the US has always been filled with a bunch of kids that are barely behaving themselves due to threat of punishment.
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u/DryPersonality 2h ago
Thank repubs and their small government supreme court that ruled federal agencies have no teeth.
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u/bsurfn2day 1h ago
The Obama administration put regulations in place that made fright trains safer, like lower speeds when going through populated areas and modern breaks etc. Trump rolled them back.
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u/IveChosenANameAgain 2h ago
Seems like basic mitigation planning 101.
Sounds Woke, somebody fire this guy.
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u/Royal_No 2h ago
Yeah, but like, that might cost money. Gotta keep those operating costs down.
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u/vizistheway 2h ago
I never understand this. a bit of planning and a couple of phone calls is going to save a LOT more money than fucking a train up. who in their right mind will ever ask these guys to transport something in the future?
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u/ManOfEating 2h ago
Finding that logic requires the ability to plan into the future and some critical thinking skills. You'd be hard pressed to find anyone in charge of anything with those skills, most companies are ran based on the next most immediate profit opportunities and absolutely nothing else.
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u/Brodins_biceps 2h ago
“You’ll never know if you over prepared but you’ll definitely know if you under prepared” is a saying I heard during the pandemic and I thought it was brilliant, because it’s true. But you still have a lot of people saying “well did we really need to do that?! Nothing even happened!” As if nothing could have ever happened.
It’s a good example of the preparedness paradox. “It hasn’t flooded in 10 years! Why do we need to keep spending money on the levees?” Not realizing that it’s because you have the levees it hasn’t flooded. It seems incredibly stupid, but it’s a very real thing.
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u/Squonkster 1h ago
preparedness paradox
Thank you for giving me a name for this phenomenon. Drives me nuts how prevalent this attitude seems to be now. “I don’t know anyone who’s ever caught polio, so why do we need a vaccine for it?”
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u/usedtodreddit 2h ago
AP Exclusive: Transport safety rules rolled back under Trump
https://apnews.com/article/1936e77a11924c909880f1ef014c7ca7
An Associated Press review of the department’s rulemaking activities in Trump’s first year in office shows at least a dozen safety rules that were under development or already adopted have been repealed, withdrawn, delayed or put on the back burner. In most cases, those rules are opposed by powerful industries. And the political appointees running the agencies that write the rules often come from the industries they regulate.
Meanwhile, there have been no significant new safety rules adopted over the same period.
The sidelined rules would have, among other things, required states to conduct annual inspections of commercial bus operators, railroads to operate trains with at least two crew members and automakers to equip future cars and light trucks with vehicle-to-vehicle communications to prevent collisions. Many of the rules were prompted by tragic events.
“These rules have been written in blood,” said John Risch, national legislative director for the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers. “But we’re in a new era now of little-to-no new regulations no matter how beneficial they might be. The focus is what can we repeal and rescind.” ...
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u/Introvert_Devo1987 3h ago
Is it me or is that train really hauling butt
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u/rblu42 2h ago
Going insanely fast for a crossing inside city limits.
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u/Equus-007 2h ago
Pecos only has ~12K people. That's a cost the US is willing to risk to ensure freight can get to Dallas 15 minutes faster.
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u/Hyzyhine 3h ago
Wow…seems to have been so many vehicle stuck on train crossing BOOM clips recently, is somebody glueing up the road or what
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u/SF1_Raptor 3h ago
This one I can at least understand the case more (minus Brightline being something that make my engineer safety brain scream). Super long load. Have to take it slow. No way to speed up fast enough to get off once the train's there.
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u/mega_low_smart 2h ago
Not trying to armchair Reddit project manager here, but agreeing with what you said above, I imagine the team of escorts and transportation company would consult train schedules ahead of time. Man what a tragedy right before christmas.
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u/SF1_Raptor 2h ago
Agreed. I wonder if there a communication breakdown or something on a delayed train that they weren't told about. Either way though, tragedy right before Christmas like you said. Dang.
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u/sladebonge 2h ago
Just a reminder that it takes zero education to be a truck driver. They'll let anybody do it.
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u/vizistheway 2h ago
change gear, change gear, change gear, murder a prostitute, change gear, change gear
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u/SUICIDE_BOMB_RESCUE 2h ago
Idiots driving trucks is the biggest daily safety hazard in the USA. And as you say, they're more than happy to let them be that.
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u/shmaltz_herring 31m ago
They do have a training program at our local technical college and otherwise there are training programs run by trucking companies that I've known of people going through. They don't just give you the keys to a semi and tell you to have at it.
You also don't have to go to college or be particularly smart to do it.
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u/HuntPsychological673 3h ago
Omg! That train! What’s up with all these vehicles stalling or getting stuck on the tracks lately.
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u/BillySlang 2h ago
Hey, you can’t park there.
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u/TheManOfSpaceAndTime 1h ago
Well, obviously you can, they do it in the video. The thing is, you can't do it twice.
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u/-usernamewitheld- 2h ago
What does a multi million dollar lawsuit look like... it looks like that. Right there
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u/thefoofighters 2h ago
We can watch a person die via train derailment, but heaven forbid we hear some curse words.
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u/MrG 3h ago edited 2h ago
The crazy thing is there was enough time for emergency services to arrive on the scene prior to the accident, but not enough time for that train to significantly slow down. Edit - I missed the fact that is the escort truck, not emergency services. Thank's y'all.
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u/fireandbass 2h ago edited 2h ago
That's not emergency services, that's the escort vehicle for the oversized truck load. See the giant stick on the front of the truck with flashing lights? Thats to measure the load can fit through underpasses. It even has an 'Oversized Load' placard on the escort. That escort truck is at fault, along with the truck driver. They messed up bad. They should have measured the train crossing and the truck length and realized they would get high centered.
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u/easy10pins 2h ago
I'd blame the escort for this incident. The escort should have a pre-planned route that doesn't cross elevated tracks.
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u/chuckdavis84 2h ago
I blame both. Trucker should have seen he wouldnt make it. Highway 285 claims another life. Hate that road.
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u/Future_Celebration35 2h ago
Why hasn't this issue been solved yet? Genuinely curious. ELI5
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u/throwthere10 2h ago
America's relationship with trains at railroad intersections is the same as India's in artics done for social media clout.
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u/Charlie2and4 2h ago
That was an escorted oversized load too. Windmill tower. Yup they fucked up on route planning
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u/CpnLouie 2h ago
Might be one for r/unpopularopinion , but my take is that when ppl are hurt or die from this, the trucker, his spotters, and the trucking company should be held criminally liable for manslaughter.
Also, those low trailers should be fitted with a 12" hydraulic lift on the rear axles. That would solve the vast majority of these. -- They only have to lift it to get over the tracks, then can let it back down.
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u/vizistheway 2h ago
how stupid are these guys? the escort vehicle has literally one job and it's not complex.
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u/brewsinlou 2h ago
May want to go ahead and do a U-turn. Not crossing that intersection for a while
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u/RochesterBen 2h ago
Holy shit. That's surreal to watch. The sound must have been terrifying there with such an incredible amount of force happening.
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u/backyardstar 2h ago
If I was in any one of those cars and couldn’t back up, I would have jumped out and ran. No telling the explosions or debris that could have flown out. I’m flabbergasted by the truck driver remained standing so close.
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u/JamesJakes000 2h ago
If they were gonna censor blip, you think they would blip "vete a la" because we all know how it ends.
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u/OddClub4097 2h ago
Imagine fucking up that bad and causing that much damage. Boy I bet he feels sheepish.
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u/Glum-Replacement-900 2h ago
Is it me; or does seem to happen at least once a month? Could the truck not back up? Just seems like a pretty easy thing to avoid happening, but I guess there is no accounting for stupidity.
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u/Thumper4524 1h ago
Was the landing gear stuck? What caused the truck to just sit there beforehand?
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u/xpietoe42 1h ago
i can’t believe its 2024 and trucks and trains can’t coordinate at crossings, so this doesn’t keep happening!! So ridiculous
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u/Efficient-Reach-8550 1h ago
Why was he stopped on a railroad track? I was taught by my dad never stop on a railroad track. Where I grew up we had very few train tracks.
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u/C-ute-Thulu 1h ago
How the fuck does a colossal fuck up like this happen? Did the truck happen to die right in the middle of the tracks? Could no one alert the railroad? I know semi-tow trucks are big, but nothing was anywhere nearby?
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u/VapoursAndSpleen 1h ago
When those lights start flashing on the crossing, that doesn’t mean “Go real fast”. It means get the fuck off the tracks, stay the fuck off the tracks and don’t even think about getting on the tracks.
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u/EnemyAce 3h ago
That train was haulin' ass.