The trouble with Level Crossings.

Sigh.

Another day, another idiot who thinks they can beat a train at a level crossing. I am sick and tired of having to read headlines such as these every so often.

This is the latest incident of a car being struck by a train at a suburban level crossing. This time, at the notorious crossing in High Street, Reservoir.

Once again, it’s the same old stupid story. Another IDIOT queued over a level crossing, whilst the booms were closing.

WHAT KIND OF FUCKWIT QUEUES OVER A BLOODY LEVEL CROSSING?

I’ll tell you who:

A FUCKWIT WHO HAS NO REGARDS FOR THEIR SAFETY, AND THE LIVES OF TRAIN DRIVERS AND PASSENGERS.

It’s not bloody easy bringing 200 tonnes of moving metal to a halt, even with the full service emergency brake being applied. And it’s certainly no day in the park being a train passenger - let alone being in the driver’s cabin during impact with a motor vehicle.

Level crossing accidents don’t kill people. Moronic behaviour at level crossings kills people. Not to mention this impact when a train's coupler slices through the side of a car like a torpedo through the hull of a ship.

Motorists who think it is safe to wait on a level crossing for traffic ahead to clear, or rush through a level crossing once the safety systems have activated, have a death wish should a train appear in the distance.

Melbourne has over 150 level crossings in the metropolitan area, and hundreds more in Regional Victoria. Despite the presence of boom gates and flashing lights at all metropolitan and some regional crossings, motorists are still stupidly putting their lives at risk by entering a crossing when the booms are lowering, lights are flashing and traffic hasn't cleared on the other side, in order to save a few minutes.

Removing every crossing in Victoria would be a costly and timely project and the chances are all of them won’t be removed in my lifetime.

I am sick to death of having to hear another train driver has been relieved from work because of the trauma experienced after cleaned up a car at a level crossing.

I am sick to death of having to hear that passengers have been injured on their way home because some fuckwit decided to sit over a level crossing. 

I am sick to death of having to hear that another person has been killed at a level crossing because they queued across the tracks or entered a level crossing when the safety systems have activated.

It is time motorists woke up and realised that level crossings are no safer than stopping in the middle of any other intersection.

What is it going to take it show idiotic motorists that there are theirs and other peoples lives at risk when they decide to queue of a level crossing?

It’s just beyond comprehension that someone would risk their life, and others, just so that they can get to their destination a little earlier. Is it too much to ask someone to wait two minutes of their life for a train carrying 1000 people to pass through a crossing?

Maybe if they saw what train drivers see when a car is struck by a train, then motorists will think prior to entering level crossing. 

And maybe then, fatal accidents, such as the collision above, which claimed the life of a woman, will be things of the past.

Image courtesy of the Herald Sun.