If there was a parade route one or near the tracks, and if the parade organizers contacted the railroad, there was probably some sort of bulletin in place instructing train crews to be on the lookout for pedestrians and/or extra vehicle traffic. There may or may not have been a slow order in place. Based on the reported speed, I'm going to say there probably wasn't.
It's my understanding that the truck in question was on its way to the parade, and therefore the parade itself may have been nowhere near the tracks. It seems unreasonable to me that the railroad would be expected to put a bottleneck in place (in the form of a speed restriction) in order to protect idiots from themselves. The fact that there were innocent people hurt and killed is (in my humble opinion) a reflection solely on the idiot driving the truck, and not in any way the fault of the railroad for not slowing the trains down.
I feel that the railroads have already been forced to do way too much to protect the public from themselves. Active warning systems, ditch/crossing lights on locomotives, reflective markings on the sides of all rolling stock, and even (especially!) extremely loud horns on locomotives. That's money the railroads MUST spend, and which hels them make axactly $0 in revenue. It's all to protect people who are too lazy to take responsibility for their own lives and look out for an oncoming train. In the case of the horn, it is one of the major causes of hearing loss among railroad employees, but apparently it's okay if I go deaf as long as soccer mom or truck driver don't have to bother looking to see if a train is coming.
Slow down, indeed! Okay, I'm done ranting now. Just a sore point for me, sorry.
weston1879 Wrote:
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> Under the circumstances,wouldnt it be a good idea
> for them to slow down going through Midland?
Kenneth Rickman
Researching and modeling the Danville & Western Ry.
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southern-railway.railfan.net]
