From the Daily News:A truck driver was stuck on a set of tracks in Queens Wednesday before he threw open the door and bailed - moments before a train slammed into the tractor-trailer.
"I jumped out when I saw the train coming," said Roy Williams, 53. "I don't know how fast it was going, but I knew he wasn't able to stop."
Williams, who was towing a trailer full of paper napkins from Pennsylvania to a Maspeth restaurant depot, tried to drive over the tracks on 57thAve. when the Long Island Rail Road crossing gate suddenly dropped about 3:30 p.m.
"The lights didn't come on until I was already on the tracks," said Williams, who has been driving for 23 years.
The gate came down and lodged between the cab and the trailer, trapping the truck in the path of a two-car train.
Unable to steer free, Williams bolted only seconds before the engine plowed into the truck with a deafening crash.
"I feel lucky to be alive," said Williams, who lives in Susquehanna, Pa.
Neither Williams nor the train engineer was injured. The train was not carrying any passengers. The MTA is investigating.
6 comments:
There's an alarm and flashing light on those gates that sounds for a few seconds before the gate drops. I suspect he thought he could just make it through before the gate would drop and he didn't time it well enough.
23 years driving a tractor trailer, he for one should have known better.
How many seconds does it take the drive over the tracks? his load wasn't a fragile one....
It's not likely that an experienced driver tried to beat out a rail road crossing in a tractor trailer. He was probably driving too slowly, which is possible if he came to a stop at the crossing as required by law. I'm curious which gate he got caught on. It's possible he got caught on the second gate, the one on the other side of the tracks. While driver inattention could have caused this accident, it's also possible that the driver did nothing wrong and the alarm on the crossing malfunctioned or his truck was just too slow.
This is a funky crossing here. It's a siding, some six or seven tracks wide. Often I see a guy jump out of a pick up truck to manually operate the gates as smaller tender locomotives move box cars about. Sometimes they are in a rush or maybe even screwing off a bit doing this task as the gates come down and a couple of seconds later here comes a tender zipping by. Simply not controlled like a commuter line run is.
I know the area and always wondered who was responsible for the gates. If they are manual then the city should regulate and license the individuals to perform this. This area is real flaky as to - how do you cross or when.
I know the area and always wondered who was responsible for the gates. If they are manual then the city should regulate and license the individuals to perform this. This area is real flaky as to - how do you cross or when.
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