Frazz by Jef Mallett for September 18, 2013

I used to drive a school bus in seminary and the bus drivers were briefed every year by the local train people. IIRC the length of an average freight train to a school buss is approximately the same as your car to a 12 oz can of cola. Ever swerve your car to miss a cola can? Nope, probably tried to hit it.

When the sounds the whistle 1/2 mile out, you have 30 seconds to clear the track if the train is going 55 mph. if the train is going 30 mph, you have 60 seconds. It took me, in practice, 42 seconds to evacuate a 72 passenger school bus. In reality, I would be throwing kids out the back on the ground, anything to get them off the bus.

Basic Rule – The train has the right of way PERIOD. The White “X” in the road means yield, it means you failed to yield the right of way. The White"X" on the pole means Yield, you failed to yield the right of way. The flashing red lights on the arm always have a solid red at the end of the arm. When you go around the arm, you ran a stop light. In Texas, they said all crossing are marked except some on private property so basically, unless somebody pushes your vehicle onto the tracks from behind, it is your fault, you failed to yield the right of way.

The train cannot turn to avoid an accident. They said average freight train going 55 mph takes a mile to stop, the train cannot stop on a dime unless at 55mph the dime is a mile down the road. We were briefed that when an engineer sees a car on the track they have to quickly evaluate the risk of derailing the train vs whatever they impact. If they are carrying hazmat, they really don’t want to risk a derailment. Those engineers that have impacted a school bus tend to not drive again due to the emotional impact.

Being the train engineer is not just sitting up there for hours with the cruise control on.