OT... 3 Wheeler Vs Train

They have now had two nasty pitch in's on the RDHR for the same reasons, people racing the train to beat it to the crossing. Lets be honest, there is no competition beween a train and a car, the kinetic energy alone at point of impact will write you off without the rest of the train rolling over you, making sure. Yet people still seem to feel they are indestructable, bombproof, whatever, or that the railway is an inconvenience that does not apply to them, or they just feel like taking another chance.

A local crossing, Beddington, near Lewes, has had so many barrier swerves and cars shunted onto the crossing by other idiots speeding down Ranscombe Hill that they have permanently lowered the railway linespeed from 85mph to

40mph in order to reduce the collision risk until the new A27 flyover has been completed. Fer crissakes, road before rail, why not lower the roadspeed to the crossing in both directions and stick a GATSO in (which they did, down to 40 but the GATSO is not exactly in a useful place to make the difference). I'm not a great fan of speed cameras but in this instance I welcome them to tame the idiots.

It has now been recommended by Network Rail and the associated authorities that crossings in all shapes and designs are the No.1 risk on the railway today, yet funds are not available for building roads over / under them, nor is planning permission a cert. Until the issue is resolved one way or another we can expect more brainless prats removing themselves from what appears to be the ver shallow end of the gene pool.

PDH

So many things have been totally nannified that people seem to think that if there was *any* risk it would have been changed by now... leading to this situation.

I noticed when driving abroad that many roads don't have kerbs, some even have foot deep gutters right at the edge. Over here I'm sure people would say that was 'dangerous' but IME it just made you concentrate more on your road positioning.

I don't like scameras. But putting them where they are useful would be great. I wonder if they'll ever try it?

If only we could guarantee they didn't take anybody else with them...

Sorry if I didn't spell that out clearly enough. I meant the ten seconds he sat in the car after the train hit him.

Well weve got No Entry Barriers in Cambridge & people drive into them on a regular basis

Yesterday was a glorious day to spend my 1 hour (OK nearer 2!) lunch break sitting outside of the pub across the road from work. It's by the exit to the car park of a retail park. Note this is the exit, with a big No Entry sign. The number of people that went INTO the car park through the 'No Entry' and 'Danger Entry Forbidden' sign was unbelievable! I lost count. Far more went in than came out of it (there are other exits). One fella did see the sign when half way in and reversed out, but all the others just swung in, several narrowly avoiding cars coming out.

The moral of the story is, there are plenty of idiots out there who won't see signs if you put them up.

As for putting barriers up on all crossings instead of lights, well you could use the same argument at ordinary traffic lights. The idiot who can't see two flashing red lights in front of him ain't going to see a single steady red light either.

BobC