Just remember: Don't park a $600,000 fire truck on railroad tracks

Exactly

 

Shouldn't the fire truck driver be smart enough not to park on the fucking railroad tracks?

 

No. They should have parked somewhere fucking else.

I don't know if you guys know this but fire hoses are really long. They could have parked 15 feet in a different direction and you know not had to call anyone, or get hit by a fucking train.

 

My county lost $400,000 when some volunteer firemen (God bless them for saving lives) ran a truck into a ditch because they were in too much of a hurry to get to a rescue, that if I remember correctly, they were not even the primary vehicle.

Let me say this as a publilc official; Firemen have had a blank check since Sept. 11.

 

Aren't trains supposed to pull over when they see the flashing lights?

 

Either way you slice it, the firemen were stupid. No defense for them.
But what if the wreck had been ON the tracks instead of near them, and they had to cut someone out of the car? Surely they'd have called Amtrak and stopped train traffic on that track, right? Shouldn't the same principle apply?

 

The wreck wasn't on the tracks, so it doesn't matter. But it seems this group of fire fighters was a bit stupider than most; they probably wouldn't have been smart enough to call Amtrak anyway.

 

Rule No. 1 we all learn when the Operation Lifesaver guy comes to talk to us in Driver's Ed ... don't ever, ever, ever stop your car on railroad tracks.

A train can't stop.

My dad has been hauling freight trains around for longer than I've been alive, and he's hit his share of cars that are stuck on the tracks. He's also given that lecture more than once to driver's ed kids (and more than 100 times to me when I was a young driver).

One might think that's common sense, but I guess not. Pull the truck 15 feet one way or the other and the Amtrak train doesn't hit.

The other issue? Amtrak doesn't own any of its own track (except the Acela route from Boston-Washington), so you'd have to contact the freight railroad. However, there is almost always a small sign on the crossing gates or pretty close to it that gives you a phone number to call in case there is an obstruction on the tracks -- like a stalled vehicle -- so they can alert the engineer in time to stop the train. One would think they'd have looked for this.

 

Nice.

 

Stop That Train is from the Catch A Fire album. Just sayin'.

 

They should've put an ugly person next to the fire truck so the train would take a dirt road.

 

I pity this particular FD when they try going to the voters for their next levy.