When will they learn?

[Stefan Andrzejewski]

Train + Car = Disaster!

[Derek Walker]

On my first trip to Magaliesburg with Reefstreamers we were on the way home past the squatter camp where there was an unguarded level crossing, I heard our loco blowing her whistle like crazy and looked out of the window, a car was attempting to get to the level crossing before the train which was roughly 50 metres away! at some point this eedjut realised that his car against our 25NC was not an even match and he put the car in reverse and started to go backwards. He just made it, a few more seconds and he would have had half a car.
I think people in cars tend to ignore the trains because they cant really judge the distance and speed of an oncoming train. And, if its an unguarded crossing like this one was then the results are tragic. I dont think our wonderful drivers test system even teaches them the dangers of approaching trains, its all about passing the test, not learning to drive.

[allanroy]

That bakkie was dragged about 400m along the track.Must be a section that the train is traveling fast, people dont realise how heavy and how far a train takes to stop.

[Luca Lategan]

This is indeed quite a fast section Allan, 90+ wouldn't be far off, but it's things like this that will make them change the speedlimit to 50 and make the journey to Cape Town even longer!

You can find the full article here. In todays paper there's an update here. According to this article it was people working for a road freight company in the bakkie, quite ironic, maybe it's a message to those companies...

[Stefan Andrzejewski]

If they have to slow down for every level crossing the train will never get to the destination. This crossing had lights flashing. This is the same as driving through a red traffic light. STUPID!