r/YouShouldKnow • u/sudo_abdel • 5d ago
Education YSK: If your vehicle gets stuck on railroad tracks look for a blue sign. It contains an emergency number and a Crossing ID to immediately halt oncoming trains.
Why YSK: If you call 911 the dispatcher has to figure out exactly where you are and then contact the specific railroad company which takes precious time you might not have. Every railroad crossing has a blue Emergency Notification System sign. If you call the number on that sign and give them the specific alphanumeric Crossing ID you are speaking directly to the railroad's dispatch. They can instantly radio any trains heading toward your exact location to stop potentially saving your life and preventing a massive derailment. Always get everyone out of the car first then make the call.
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u/Ayasdad 5d ago
Also call that number if the arms malfunction. I'm a trucker so we have to be extra careful about crossings. I had one incident where the arm was down on my side of the road but up on the other, I sat for like 15 minutes holding up traffic waiting for a damn train, my original assumption was that the other side was the one malfunctioning. I called the number and they had a guy out there in 20 minutes. It felt like a huge unnecessary delay, but also I was not about to risk my job or life trying to go around it.
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u/Agret 5d ago
In my town the crossing malfunctions a couple times a year and the gates will be stuck down for like 6hrs. It's annoying because the crossing is right in the middle of the township and to get around it is a considerable detour of around 15min as there's no other crossing in the town you need to go to the next town over and take some shady rural back roads.
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u/CurvySexretLady 5d ago
Call and report it and they will fix it.
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u/Agret 5d ago
People do call and report it and it's all over the local Facebook groups whenever it happens. Takes a long time for them to fix each time.
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u/CurvySexretLady 5d ago
Curious what railroad and if this is in the US? FRA requires railroads to fix malfunctions in a timely manner especially public safety devices and they can be fined.
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u/gahblahblah 5d ago
It shocks me how often people get stuck somehow exactly there. I could understand a weird unlikely breakdown once a decade, but Ive seen so many videos of vehicles getting hit - like somehow a curse hits you to stall your vehicle, or a person's brain stops working so they cant do basic problem solving to move the vehicle.
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u/ggchappell 5d ago
I think a lot of people have trained themselves: when driving, if in doubt, slow down / stop. This is good advice in an awful lot of situations, but it can fail spectacularly in at least two: when merging onto a highway and when crossing railroad tracks.
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u/IcyCow5880 5d ago
Bro WHY do people try to go on the hwy so slowly? It's much easier to slow down a little if need-be.
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u/yoweigh 5d ago
a person's brain stops working so they cant do basic problem solving to move the vehicle.
That's actually what happens. It's a fight or flight response. The lizard part of the brain takes over and it doesn't know what a motor vehicle is.
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u/Zakattack1125 5d ago
People are selfish idiots and try to beat the train much in the way shit-for-brains assholes try to beat red lights and cause accidents.
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u/frill_demon 2d ago
A lot of urban train crossings are built in such a way that the road on either side of them settles more than the crossing itself.
That creates the ideal circumstances for a vehicle crossing them perpendicularly to high-center on the tracks.
Add to that the fact that a lot of vehicle problems that involve stalling/failing are often exacerbated by stop&go traffic patterns and it starts to make much more sense why it's more frequent than expected.
On top of that, a train hitting a car probably isn't all that common, because it's newsworthy. It's a frequency illusion.
If it were actually common we wouldn't hear about it, much like the news doesn't usually both to report a car crash unless it's particularly bad, because they happen everywhere all the time.
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u/smolglasscircle 5d ago
Run towards the train! You’re less likely to get hit by debris if the train passes you before hitting the car.
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u/SnooSquirrels8276 5d ago
For a second, I thought you meant towards the train on the tracks and I was like “yeah, you won’t have to worry about debris if you’re dead!” And then I read ‘if the train passes you’ and my brain caught up with my eyes 😭
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u/other_usernames_gone 5d ago
There's often not much space by the track, at least in the UK.
If the train derails and you ran towards it you're getting side swiped. Or if the train is wider than you thought you're getting wiped out. Or if you trip and fall into the track.
You're better off just running up the road as far as you can. Even at 100m you're basically completely safe from being hit by any debris.
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u/pandamarshmallows 5d ago
This post is specific to the US even though the OP is not clear about that. In the UK you should always contact Network Rail, the government body in charge of maintaining the railway, before the emergency services. They are the people with the power to stop the trains and they will liaise with the emergency services on your behalf. There is always an emergency number next to the level crossing or bridge. You also should never run along the tracks; trespassing on the railway is a huge deal in the UK and you will make everything worse if you do it. If you’re worried about debris you should move back up the road instead, where pedestrians have the right of way and you are less likely to get stuck on the tracks by whatever earthworks have been set up to make the track level.
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u/other_usernames_gone 4d ago
True, but its a bad idea to stand 5m away from a crashing train is universal. My comment is specifically about the advice to head towards the train.
I doubt US train tracks have that much space around them. To be truly safe that close you need to clear the length of the train. Otherwise you could be crushed as the train derails. Trains can be over a mile long.
However you know theres space along the road as far as you want. Because otherwise there wouldn't be a road there.
You could also end up stranded along the track by the wreckage.
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u/DoctorOctagonapus 4d ago
Many level crossings now have a physical emergency phone by the tracks, not just a number. Otherwise like you said, it's one of the only emergency situations where your first call should be to someone who isn't emergency services.
Same deal applies if a vehicle hits a railway bridge.
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u/DeusExRobotics 5d ago edited 5d ago
AND GET OUT OF THE CAR IF IT IS STUCK.
IT CAN GET CRUSHED LIKE A SODA CAN.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1EGFGxx6OE
This is a SEMI that gets destroyed.
WARNING. Second video is not safe for life and as such is a raw link only.
This means that it shows 💀
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPsCmh4Rc-Y
If your vehicle does not move, GET. THE. HECK. OUT of it.
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u/Chime57 5d ago
And head in the direction of the oncoming train. If your vehicle does get hit, you don't want to be struck by flying car parts.
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u/tragicallybrokenhip 5d ago
I've been on a train that was unable to stop in time when someone decided to commit suicide by train. So if you're stuck on the track? Get TF out of your vehicle then make the phone call. Because I'm not sure you understand how long it takes a train to come to a stop.
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u/krauksikp 5d ago
Does it apply globally or in some specific country?
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u/mocha_lattes_ 5d ago
US specific. Another comment mentioned what to do in the UK.
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u/WallflowerIcon 4d ago
And even in the US it’s location dependent. Sometimes the number leads to someone who doesn’t care or says call the cops.
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u/wtxmarky 5d ago
It takes trains a long time to stop.
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u/DeltaOneFive 5d ago
Which is why every second counts so you should call the RR directly instead of 911
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u/MyvaJynaherz 5d ago
If all else fails, a conductive path between both rails can signal that there's a track obstruction, which will alert any trains on that line.
If you have jumper-cables, those will work.
It's not common knowledge, but rails are slightly electrified. They're essentially two wires that aren't directly connected at a conductive point since ties are not very conductive.
A sensor can send a zap down the line, and if there's a strong returning signal on the opposite rail it signifies something causing the completed circuit.
The most common thing is another train's metal wheels, but something like metal laying across the tracks can also trigger an alert.
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u/other_usernames_gone 5d ago
That only works if a train isn't already in that section of track.
If a train is already in that section jumper cables won't do anything because the train is already shorting it out.
More importantly, you want to get as far as you possibly can away from your car and the tracks. Messing around getting your jumper cables out of your boot will waste way too much time.
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u/bkcir 4d ago
As a former tow truck operator, I’d like to clarify that yes you should do this, but it doesn’t “immediately halt oncoming trains.”
It is absolutely the first thing you should do after safely removing everyone from harms way, but the operator has told us many times “yes, we will signal the train to stop but that is no guarantee that it WILL BE ABLE TO STOP before it reaches you.”
Also, a set of jumper cables clipped to each rail will send a signal that there is a fault and will signal any nearby trains to stop.
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u/Polkawillneverdie17 4d ago
It takes miles for a train to stop. Drive through the barrier or simply get the fuck out of the car.
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u/Scrappleandbacon 5d ago
I don’t mean to sound like a contrarian but this is highly dependent on who owns the lines. Some RR companies are better than others with their response time and some RR companies don’t even pick up the phone.
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u/Impossible-Matter-25 4d ago
Bruh, push the car. Ain't no way they'll so ok we will stop the train until you get a tow truck lol.
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u/Sys32768 3d ago
Person stupid enough to get stuck on a rail track:
"Well I recall a Reddit post that said I need to look for a blue sign"
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u/Mikey129 5d ago
Good luck getting connected to someone and to someone who understands what you’re explaining to him/her.
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u/LackWooden392 5d ago
Why would you be stuck in the car?
Will they still stop the train just to spare my car if I'm not in it anymore?
Will I incur some sort of fee, penalty, or other obligation if I have them stop the train just to save my 2008 Honda Accord, that ostensibly doesn't work anymore?
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u/streeetmeats 5d ago
It’s less about sparing your car and more about sparing the life of the train conductor and anyone near the rail roads when the train derails after hitting a car stuck on the tracks.
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u/TgCCL 4d ago
The train staff will more than likely be fine if the train crashes into a car. Even derailing from that is rather unlikely.
We've had passenger trains going 160km/h, so around 100mph for the US folks, crash into cars and semis that were ignoring level crossing signs and no one inside the train had anything worse than light wounds and the scare of a lifetime.
The people actually in danger are those whose vehicle gets hit by the train and those who are in range to get hit by debris.
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u/Away-Log-7801 5d ago
Yeah theyd stop the train. Trains are tough, but they dont walk away undamaged from hitting 4000 pounds of steel and glass at 100 km/h.
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u/APater6076 5d ago
And DRIVE THROUGH THE BARRIER if you have to, it's better than the train smashing your car up and potentially causing a derailment.