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ChineseGold Line Collision
[tags]gold line, accident, los angeles[/tags]
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From the LA Times: Gold Line crash near Mt. Washington injures 6. Gold line delays. Interesting how they say that, despite the fact that it appears undisputed that the collision occured because a foolish driver ran around the barrier, that it was the Gold Line train doing the hitting. If a person walks off a cliff, are you going to blame the cliff? Probably a poor choice of wording, but still, I’d hate to see this blamed on the evils of rail transit.
And people complain about Boston drivers… if Bostonians ran into the Green Line twice a month, there wouldn’t be a Green Line left to speak of.
From Metro:
Due to an accident involving the Metro Gold Line and a vehicle at Avenue 50 and Marmion Way, Metro Gold Line service had been delayed with no through service in the area. As a result, Metro has deployed Metro Buses to transport Metro Gold Line patrons between the Highland Park Station and the Southwest Museum Station. This service delay will remain until further notice. Metro apologizes for any inconvenience this may cause to our patrons.
Discussion
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Always amazing when people decide it’s a good idea to drive around barriers. They must really have to get to where they’re going at all costs.
Sadly, the costs were pretty high this time.
I hope the people hurt are only shaken up or minor injuries, and I hope the driver’s car is damaged beyond all recognition, so long as s/he’s health is intact.
Thanks for adding the map, I’m at work so it had to be a pretty barebones post but I wanted to get it up to notify people.
I hope those Gold Line riders who were injured sue the hell out of the driver of the car. For that matter, I hope that Metro gets money from the woman’s insurance company (or her) to repair the train car. I have NO sympathy for people who drive around crossing gates, as this driver apparently did. NONE. (I don’t wish ill on drivers, but frankly, if it happens as a result, it’s your own damned fault.)
Flickr user WALTARRRR has some amazing photos of the accident, the train got charred an the car is totally crunched.
I heard this announced on the radio: “Police aren’t sure who’s at fault…” Sure. I’m sure the train turned off the tracks and rammed into the mini-van.
Some of the crossings at Marmion Way don’t have any gates, but I believe this one did.
I wonder why the recent crashes in this area? The Gold LIne has been relatively crash free since it opened, esp. compared to the first few years the Blue Line was in operation.
Maybe it’s new people who aren’t used to the train moving into the neighborhood due to people defaulting on mortgages? Highland Park is notoriously full of “house flippers.”
Just last night some moron who was not that close behind me just about got his car bonked by the safety arm at that very crossing (the lights had started blinking as I was crossing the tracks).
My thought was, ‘Good way to get hit by the train, dumbass.’
Turns out there’s more than one in the neighborhood …
I’m still waiting for the report that she was holding her cell phone to her head at the time.
I hope she has to pay for all the damage, if for no other reason than for sending a helicopter symphony to jerk me from my slumber at 7 a.m.
I never like it when they use the wording that the train struck/hit/etc the other vehicle. It has an implication that the train was at fault, when you know that it was probably running a light or ignoring a crossing gate. I always found that annoying with the Orange line descriptions as well.
better yet, the moron was probably texting; something i’ve found to be the most amazing thing to witness as you wait at a bus stop. some shithead texting away as they drive on past… running a late yellow or nearly hitting a ped as they’re walking. and the whole blame game is just media bs. its obviously the idiot driver’s fault and i agree with ThomasInsKeep when he says he has no sympathy for these people.
along that strech of mariom way
there are no gates just traffic
signs warning train apporaching
and the signal turned red (for the traffic )
We are trying to create “Quiet Zones” - no bells and whistles, but it the very few drivers like this that makes creating these zone almost impossible.
While this is mostly true, the intersection at which this took place (Ave. 50 near Marmion) there are two gates on either side of the tracks.
Plus, they come down long before the train gets anywhere near the intersection.
So you’ve got to be really trying to be that careless.
moar like CARless, amirite? kaboom!
The driver is likely at fault (as opposed to forced on to the crossing to avoid a crash or system malfunction). To drive through the gates, which are supposed to be down no less than 7 seconds (??) before the train arrives? Bizarre. Unless the crossing arms were broken by the emergency response team or it was a suicide attempt.
Nonetheless, there are several intersections on the Gold Line that violate several rail engineering principles: fluxuating speeds, poor lines of sight, proximity to parallel thoroughfares, etc. It’s a credit to 4-quad gates that accidents like these don’t occur more frequently. It likely has more to do with the suburban areas and light vehicular traffic at most the crossings than anything else.
How’s that part of northeast L.A. suburban, Damien?
Point taken. I was more or less pointing out the comparative level of traffic at that crossing and the majority of others on the Gold Line, comparative to the Downtown LA and LB portions of the Blue Line and the majority of the Expo Line crossings (Phase 1 and 2), than attempting to get into a debate between “urban” and “suburb.”
Less vehicular and pedestrian traffic = lower risk of incidents like this. I suppose its one way to compensate for bad design.
How is it bad design? Look at Boston or Philly or any number of cities… LRT runs on the street (in Boston on the far side of the E line, runs without even a median to protect it and we don’t have these problems. And the C line runs through some pretty suburban parts of Brookline, to boot. They don’t put these quad arms or lights or whatnot, just signs. For the love of God, people know to watch out for trains, it’s not a complicated concept.
I don’t believe that the Gold or Blue lines were poorly designed, not when other cities don’t need to baby idiotic drivers. Do we need more education out there? Maybe. But what we really need is to get traffic enforcement out there giving people expensive tickets for doing this shit.
We shouldn’t be babying people, and we shouldn’t be wasting transit money doing it.
Umm, I just explained why it was bad design:
“[T]here are several intersections on the Gold Line that violate several rail engineering principles: fluxuating speeds, poor lines of sight, proximity to parallel thoroughfares, etc.”
If you need more info, google “USDOT” (or “FHA” or “PUC” or “FRA”) along with “grade crossing safety” read, then go to local.live.com and look at the intersections.
Bottom line is if everyone followed all the laws all the time and signals there’d be no need for traffic enforcement. The question is, do you compensate for that when designing a line?
How’s building a crossing violating principles in environment in which accidents are frequent any different than building a car in 2007 America without seat belts, air bags, anti-lock brakes and the hundreds of others safety features?
It’s bad enough stupid selfish private automobile drivers cuts in front of buses on regular streets (in fact too many drivers here are so rude), but to try to beat a train on a protected crossing that only takes less than a minute to cross is absurd. LA is full of these people, everyone wanting to get ahead and just drive recklessly. It’s great her SUV got smashed, however that’s sad our train got damaged. Also, if people are intent of doing other things while driving, then revoke their license and force them onto mass transit so that they do the same activities without endangering others.
“Also, if people are intent of doing other things while driving, then revoke their license and force them onto mass transit so that they do the same activities without endangering others.”
I actually like that idea. That’s one way to increase ridership.
“Break the law. Go Metro.”
I agree, Tony. There’s no reason Metro couldn’t seek civil damages for the damage to the train… bankrupt a few of these people to make a point.
did anyone get a car number on the second crash ?
the first one was car # 248
i got photographs of her in
south pasadena