Pending Review
Ain't no roadblock strong enough
While railroad crossings provide a carload of darwin awards each year, a woman in Belgium Belgium, pushed the (futile) game even further by attempting to drive across a railroad crossing that had been removed for maintenance leaving a large gap with only bare tracks and crushed stones.
On a railroad crossing, the roadway is often made out of several panels like rubber parquet flooring, allowing them to be pulled up without severing the train tracks.
During the week, workers had entirely removed the old roadway and started to close the gap leaving only one track uncovered. Since passenger trains need to run during the day, they mostly work during the night and secure the crossing during the day.
In order to avoid any trespassing, the safety gates, bells and lights were turned on while temporary guardrails with flashing lights, signs and redirection arrow were erected on each side of the closed crossing. On the left side (where the track was missing), workers made a large pile with unlaid rubber panels and made a small berm out of ballast in order to discourage trespassing even further. Even pedestrians would most probably give up and find another way...
Then came our off-road driver. A black Mercedes stops at the roadblock while a passenger train cross at high speed. The driver is then aware that trains are running on the line today. Of course, she's on the most protected side (with the stacked panels and the ballast berm).
Then, she gets out of her car and start removing temporary barriers until there is a gap wide enough to drive forward. This task takes more than five minutes, probably longer than following the redirection signs and crossing the tracks somewhere else. When the fist obstacle is out of the way, she carefully proceeds between the barriers and the stack of panels and start climbing the rocky edge. This obstacle happens to be tougher than anticipated and the car nearly stalls. Anyways, our mountain climber pushes forward until the front wheel plunges in the gap between the (missing) road and the tracks. If a train comes now, it can easily deal severe damage.
Still determined to press forward by crossing the remaining portion (80%) of the gap. She manage to run over the first rail with one wheel. But this wheel fails to jump over the second rail and the other front wheel fails to clear the first rail (the rear wheels are also embedded on the ballast heap). After a 10-minute attempt, the fine car is now a sitting duck right in the middle of the tracks ; a train could come at any time. Our patient driver exits the car and waits on the tracks until other motorists arrive and try to help.
Hopefully, after a few minutes, someone called security in order to stop all the train traffic on the line. It took a crane to remove the intact (but scratched) Mercedes from the tracks. A nearby CCTV had recorded every minute of this 15-minute obstacle course ; the railway infrastructure company quickly released the footage as a good example of what NOT to do when you come across a closed and dismantled crossing.
While railroad crossing accidents are very common occurrence, the amazing perseverance of our rock off-roading lady, trying to remove every obstacle in her way despite the plethora of road signs makes me think we've just found a good candidate for a honorable mention, ready to overcome every traffic cone / ditch / roadblock / warning sign... standing in her way
Submitted on 06/05/2019
Submitted by:
Yanes Bunnens
Reference:
Het Nieuwsblad - today - https://www.nieuwsblad.be/cnt/dmf20190605_04445945