Darwin cyclists

[T4tomo]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cg3jy6vejepo

about 1.20 into this video of level crossing near misses are two candidates for darwin cyclists of the year

 

[Drago]

Holy Trump!

So many brain donors.

 

[presta]

See this one at Colchester, the train clips his shoe and knocks it off:


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sc7XmX1ak2A

...then there's this woman on a bike:


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzx3uwjDaKo

 

[BrumJim]

There are reasons why every applicable railway infrastructure project needs to consider the possibility of closing level crossings. Here they are.

 

[Drago]

There are reasons why every applicable railway infrastructure project needs to consider the possibility of closing level crossings. Here they are.

Nah, leave it as it is. The only people at risk of getting chopped in half are those that freely choose to put themselves in that position.

Protecting against genuine accident or mishap is one thing, but don't waste money protecting dumb.

 

[BrumJim]

Nah, leave it as it is. The only people at risk of getting chopped in half are those that freely choose to put themselves in that position.

Protecting against genuine accident or mishap is one thing, but don't waste money protecting dumb.

Unfortunately killing stupid people has a knock-on effect on train drivers. A good chunk (about half?) never return to the same work.

 

[T4tomo]

It really says something on the two cyclists were so busy looking to see if they would get hit by a train that they didn't consider someone else would be as stupid as themselves and also be dashing across the crossing as the barriers were coming down.

 

[matticus]

What has this video got to do with cyclists? It's a bunch of idiots with death-wishes - hardly surprising that a few happen to be on bikes ...

 

[wiggydiggy]

View: https://youtu.be/ue61c6MZNQw?feature=shared

 

[Drago]

Unfortunately killing stupid people has a knock-on effect on train drivers. A good chunk (about half) never return to the same work.

This is true. That must surely be hard on them.

But when R2D2 starts driving the trains in the future he won't care, and good luck to him.

 

[raleighnut]

When I was a youth there was/is a level crossing in Narborough that a member of the station staff would come out and manually move the gates to stop traffic, mind you there was a ticket office/waiting room that invariably had a coal fire burning in the corner as well as one behind the ticket window (also a parcel office)
This was not a little 'branch line' but a dual line 'express route' and had goods trains throughout the night, also had a signal box (now automated) and the signalmen also had a stove. The 'Stationmaster' also had his own house next to the station.

 

[mjr]

When I was a youth there was/is a level crossing in Narborough that a member of the station staff would come out and manually move the gates to stop traffic,

Yeah, thereby blocking all lanes. I don't really understand why we still have any half-barriered or unbarriered crossings. Full barriers and object detection should be the minimum, else it's not fair on the train drivers.

The last clip in the BBC video seems a bit naughty to include because the crossing green light seems to be lit, but the night vision camera doesn't show colour. Nowhere near as bad as most of those. The two cyclists must be wishing cycling hadn't become so popular!

 

[T4tomo]

The two cyclists must be wishing death-wish cycling hadn't become so popular!

FIFY

 

[BrumJim]

When I was a youth there was/is a level crossing in Narborough that a member of the station staff would come out and manually move the gates to stop traffic, mind you there was a ticket office/waiting room that invariably had a coal fire burning in the corner as well as one behind the ticket window (also a parcel office)
This was not a little 'branch line' but a dual line 'express route' and had goods trains throughout the night, also had a signal box (now automated) and the signalmen also had a stove. The 'Stationmaster' also had his own house next to the station.

There are still a few of those around, if you know where to look.

 

[mjr]

There are still a few of those around, if you know where to look.

On main lines with expresses, though?

I cycled across a fun one which I think had a pushbutton for road users to request to cross. I wonder how motorists felt, being treated like walkers for a change! I don't remember exactly where it was. Somewhere in the Midlands. Not a main line.