On Nov 17, 10:31*pm, Ed Pawlowski wrote:
On Sat, 17 Nov 2012 21:16:47 -0500, Wes Groleau

wrote:
On 11-17-2012 10:02, Ed Pawlowski wrote:
the circumstances. *I've seen parades that have fire trucks and rescue
equipment blasting horns and sirens. *The gate signal would have been
lost, as would flashing lights. *Train horn may have just been one of
many horns sounding.

I can hear a train horn with all my windows closed and I live two or
three miles from the tracks. *This accident occurred in the center of
twon. *In either direction, there are many crossings. *So the train's
horns would have been sounding frequently over the three minutes before
impact.

I don't doubt the train horn was sounding, but if a couple of fire
trucks were blaring horns and sirens as part of the parade, the train
would not be hard or could easily be lost in the jumble of other
noises. *Mentally, these folks were in parade fun mode.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nation/n...,1589904.story

"In a briefing Saturday, NTSB member Mark Rosekind listed what
happened in the moments before the accident, a meticulous breakdown of
the events leading to four deaths and 16 injuries:

Twenty-one seconds before the crash, the crossing's southbound traffic
signal turned green.

At 20 seconds, the crossing's warning lights began to flash and the
bells sounded. At the same time, the lead parade float's trailer
crossed the southern edge of the track's rail and made it through.

Thirteen seconds before impact, the crossing arms began to come down.

One second later, the trailer carrying the veterans began crossing the
track, its front tires rolling over the northern edge of the rail.

Three seconds later, the train engineer blasted his horn, stretching
out the blare for four seconds.

Seven seconds before impact, one of the crossing arms crashed into a
flagpole on the parade float.

Two seconds later, the engineer hit the emergency brakes.

At 4:36 p.m., the 80-car train slammed into the trailer at 62 mph. It
took more than a minute to come to a complete halt."


If that's correct, then it was 8 seconds after the warning
lights and bells went off and 1 second after the gate had
started to go down that the driver STARTED to cross
the tracks. Which fits with witnesses who said they
saw the gates going down on top of the float.

But one striking thing here is that 20 secs is all the time
there was from the lights and bells at the crossing first
going off to impact. Apparently that is the minimum
allowed? Seems mighty short to me..... I don't think
I've ever been at a grade crossing where the train came
by within 20 secs of the lights activating. Usually you
sit there, waiting, waiting......