Eric B: Making Our Skies and Rails Safe

Hello fellow trainiacs. I know it's been a while since I've updated the blog, but recent events in rail safety (or lack thereof) have forced me to make this story a priority. Those of you in the Philadelphia area may have already heard about this story, but I am proud to say that one of our correspondents (and military pilot in training), Eric B, was on the scene minutes after the event occurred.

Eric B: Hero of Rail Safety.

Being a dedicated follower of the blog, Eric immediately contacted me on Thursday, May 6, knowing the urgency with which I would want this story to hit the blog-o-sphere. I promptly took the weekend off, and decided to post this story on May 11th. So to anyone who was hoping to avoid a clusterfuck either on the R6 rail line or in East Falls at Indian Queen Lane and Cresson Ave, my bad. Anyway, I am simply going to post Eric's account of what he saw with the photos he took, and you can reference the map below to piece it all together. I want re-emphasize: this is Eric's account of events. I typically don't use language like this.

"So I'm straight chillin' at the top of the hill with two neighbors, when we see a firetruck race down (southwest) Indian Queen Lane. We were fucking terrified that Billy Murphy's Irish Saloon was on fire, so we ran down the hill hoping to be deputized so we could help put out the fire. As it turns out, the tragedy that had unfolded was much more funny than the one we hoped to prevent...
"We got to the corner of Cresson and Indian Queen and saw that a Septa train had clobbered some dumbass' car. We thought for certain the driver was dead. We talked to a dude who saw the whole event. He said the driver was trying to make a right turn onto Indian Queen from Cresson AFTER the lights started flashing. By the time she pulled onto the tracks the gates had already come down. She looked at the guy in car (who was obeying the ethics of rail safety and common fucking sense) and mouthed the words 'what do I do?!' to which he responded 'Get out of the car!!!' Instead, she tried to drive forward, but he wheels simply spun. She then put her car in reverse, with the same result (those gates are stronger than they look). She looked at the witness and again said 'What should I do?!' to which he once again responded 'Get the FUCK out of the car!' Instead, she stayed in the car and the Septa train kept moving forward until this happened:
"She must have collected trash in her trunk, because when the train hit her car the trunk flew open and garbage went flying everywhere. Her car hit three parked cars as it rolled over three times before stopping. When the firemen went to get her out, I assumed they'd be scraping her off of the car seats, but as it turns out she was mostly uninjured, besides whatever mental disabilities she had that led to her to slowly pull onto the train tracks as the warning lights signaled a train was coming. With the firemen's help she stood up and waved to the crowd." - Eric B, 2nd Lieutenant, 05/06/10

Take a look at the damage the Septa train suffered. Almost none. Say what you will about the shitty service you'll receive on the trains themselves, the over-priced tickets, infrequent running times and all around trash that makes up a large percentage of its ridership, Septa knows how to build a train.

And if I might editorialize this story for a moment: this is what pisses me off about people who ignore the rules of rail safety. There was a train full of commuters trying to get home from a hard day of work. All this moron has to do is wait until the train passed and she could go home too. But instead, she slowly decided to "go for it" and ends up wrecking her car and everyone else ends up on shuttle buses for two hours. If you can't make quick, rational decisions, you might not belong behind the wheel of a car.

On a side note, I want to thank Eric for capturing these photos. Apparently, when he went to take the photos his neighbors asked him why he would want to photograph this moment. He said a friend of his had a rail safety blog. Several other onlookers overheard him say this and laughed out loud. Fuck those dickheads.