What Happens When Railroad Crossing Gates Malfunction?! Etc.

I love how the conductor yelled at the car

People who disobey crossing gates have no common sense! Don't they understand that they have no chance against the train? Even a tank would get fucked up by a train

4:31 its just the poor guys first day on the job, hes just nervous.

The gate that was shaking at 4:30, it was its first day on the job (it was nervous) and it didn’t wanna mess up! 😉

At 4:58 you see a phone number on the crossing pole. It's there to call the yard office to inform them of a malfunction, vehicle stuck on the tracks etc. It takes a few minutes, but that heads up may save a life.

I was a locomotive engineer for nearly 30 years with the Southern Pacific and Union Pacific when they took the SP over. The truth is grade crossing protection isn’t fail-safe.  There is battery back up for a power failure and in very remote areas where there are no electric lines and battery power is the main source, recharged by solar panels.  The important thing is crossing protection DOES fail for a number of different reasons which I’ll not go into, lest some idiot tries to defeat one intentionally. It is a fairly rare occasion but twice in my own career I operated over grade crossings that had failed clipping along at 40mph.  No one got hit because they put into practice the oldest safety advice.  And that is before crossing ANY tracks, protected or not, you must Look and Listen.  Not a glance.  A real look.  Glances can make you dead.  Mute the music for a couple of seconds so you can hear an approaching train.  You’ve heard that song dozens of times anyway. Still, don’t count on hearing the whistle.  In snowy conditions, the throat of the horn can get clogged with snow, emitting a pitiful squeak if working at all.  That is why Look is part of the equation. Keep in mind crossing protection is nothing more than an electromechanical device, just like the toaster in your kitchen.  Would you bet your life it won’t fail at breakfast tomorrow? Me either. Deaths at grade crossings are second in number only to drunk driving fatalities.  And they are usually 99.99% preventable.  Odds are someone got clobbered while you’ve been reading this.  And there is nothing the engineer can do about it.  Most road freight trains weigh in at between 10,000 and 13,000 tons these days, and on roller bearings with very little friction between the wheels and rail.  That is why trains are so efficient.  And on average, depending on speed and grade it takes more than a mile to stop even in full emergency braking.  What that means is by the time the engineer sees you, it is already too late to stop for you.  Even at 10mph it takes a few hundred feet to stop. Another tip I’ll pass on is if you are stopping at a grade crossing stop well before nearing the crossing.  50 feet at a minimum.  More is better if you can.  The reason why is a train can derail at any time, at any speed and at any place.  One idiot in Oregon got as close as he could to the lowered gates.  A switch engine crew was crossing the road at walking speed.  A car loaded with lumber derailed and just laid over on its side.  No drama.  But the idiot in the car wound up with 50 tons of timber in his lap.  Squashed like a bug and just as dead. Don’t assume everyone knows these things, but I can assure you they don’t, so pass the word along to the people you love.  You just might save a life some day…

What a friggin legend this man is. Seriosuly. Man saved a life while watching trains and traveling the country

No nudity, no violence, no politics. Just good, wholesome crossing gate malfunctions. ❤️ 👌🏼

If you get hit by a train it's because you have no respect for it.

10:53 now that's what i call an engineer that knows how to use a horn

Talk about dark train crossing at night, there's one in my area that wasn't guarded by flashers or gates, despite being on a paved rural highway without street lights and with a speed limit of 50 -- which of course in the country means as fast as you can go per driving conditions. Most people take it at 50 or 55, and prudently slowed down before the tracks just in case there was a train ON the crossing, because trains are often delayed on those tracks late at night as they come to the switches a few miles ahead. But one high school boy who hadn't had his license very long did not slow down, and sadly drove into the train at probably 50-60mph. His car caught on fire and he was trapped inside. The young man went to school with my children, but a couple grades ahead. It was awful. His best friend lived at the last house before the tracks and was on his porch when it happened. I don't know if he even knew there was a stopped train. This was long before cell phones, and train cars didn't have reflectors. I remember the times I approached that crossing slowly, which I learned to do when I was still on a permit and had to be with a licensed passenger. My aunt and uncle lived out that way, so they taught me (stick shift standard transmission!). I can remember being shocked at how dark the train was -- there's no way I could've seen it in time to stop if I'd been driving the speed limit. I didn't see it until I was almost on it. There was no noise whatsoever, no whistle because it was stopped. When I came up to those tracks with a train moving across, the only way I knew there was a train was by the flashing of headlights of the cars stopped on the other side of the tracks, which of course was from the train cars blocking the lights and then the lights appearing between the cars. But it the train wasn't moving you couldn't tell anything was there. Finally, a few years ago they added lights and a gate. It had been at least 25 years since that young man was killed. I'm not sure if that had anything to do with it. I do know his best friend still has nightmares over it. He had become friends with my son through mutual school friends, and they've kept in touch in the 20 years since my son finished school. He's gone on to be successful in the trades, and has a good head on his shoulders, with a wonderful family that has supported him. Otherwise he might have fallen into drugs and alcohol over it. Thank God his life wasn't destroyed along with the life that was taken, but he'll never be the same, and neither will the victim's parents and brothers and sisters, and everyone who loves him. May he rest in peace, and may his loved ones be comforted by the hope of eternity. He shouldn't have been killed that way. There's just too simple a prevention that isn't all that elaborate or expensive. Such a shame there weren't flashers or gates until now.

I will never be so much in a hurry that I would “speed” through a train track warning, while a train is coming! Wtf O_o

In the second clip, the school van stops at the RR crossing as required by law. The driver pulled up to the tracks so as to see if a train might be coming. Then just as ready to proceed, the crossing bells start clanging and the gates come down. The driver was backing up, but by the time the pickup truck behind moved back, the gates hit the roof. The pickup pulled right behind the school van at a railroad crossing while the van had its hazard flashers on.  That's not the right thing to do.

4:50 It's shaking because a GHOST TRAIN is passing thru 😆

If you do not train yourself to drive, you will be "trained" eventually.

8:51 yells "I'M ON TOP OF THE WOORRRLLD* LMAO

A crossing gate on a car's roof... That's something I've never seen before!

My dad, who was an AT&SF engineer for 45 years, drilled into me as a young driver to NEVER trust crossing signals. Ever. He'd hit too many cars and seen too many malfunctions.

I live in a city that gets a lot of passenger trains coming through all day, and I live right against the station. Malfunctioning arms are my biggest fear living less than a football field away from a crossing, though I’ve been fortunate enough to not have anything like that happen in my three years living here.

I just wanted to yell at them "STOP GOING AROUND THE GATE! IT'S THERE TO PROTECT YOU!!"