Having been in my share of crossing accidents, its a sore point. Its bad enough that you killed someone even a family but some cops act as if they are gods. In 72,I knocked one guy in the clear in Salinas when we used to go through town and a there were a bunch of crossings. The speed was 20 and this guy was drunk and got his car stuck between the track and a large relay cabinet. Nervous and scared doesn't even come close to describing this run, my first as an engineer out of SLO. Well, here comes one of Salinas finist. He gets up on the engine (Big,Big no-no) and starts to tell us what we are going to do. (We were going to cut all the crossings until they were finished) I called the Salinas operator and told him to get a Audit 1 officer to the scene and that we were having trouble with a cop. Well, Mr. Cop asked to see my drivers license and I refused. I told him I was not driving a car and my "Locomotive License" was at 65 Market in SF. About that time here comes the TM and another cop. They have a little private conversation out side and Cop 1 comes back inside and gets his paper work and said as he left, "I will get your DL number". Never did.

There are a lot of of cops that do their job as they are supposed to and don't try to be Super Man. The CHP has always been nice and know the laws. They are not allowed up on the power because of interstate commerce rules. I hit and killed a guy in his car at the potato shed crossing west of Gonzales one night on the Zipper. The front of the engine was covered with gasoline so held down the bail until we stopped.(no sparks) I called Salinas and said we needed a fire truck to wash down the gas and a coroner. The CHP showed up and we gave him all the regular information and waited until the fire department was done and the wagon showed up. The head man and I were beating on the front brake rigging enough to get it to clear the wheels and take the shoes off. That done, we left the front truck cut out and went on to SLO when they let us go. The cop was asking all kinds of questions about the engines and how did such & such work, etc. You could tell he was a rail fan. I told him it was against the rules, but if he wanted to go up and look at the cab it would be fine. He did and he was still there when we got ready to go about 45" later. He gave me his card and thanked me and got down. He was the watch commander in Monterey County that night and it turned out he had just given the driver a ticket around Ft. Ord 45" earlier for not having tail lights. The driver, a GI, said he had just got the car out of the body shop. He made it all the way to 101, turned at the crossing, drove down the tracks and got high centered. The only warning we had was the mars light kept picking up something, a reflector ? At 70mph there wasn't anything left of the car or the driver. I learned early on, not to leave the cab, that was the head brakemen's job. Oh, and the really weired part it was on my birthday, August 7 in the 70s.

The worst one was when I hit Judi Wilson and her 3 kids not two miles from my house.

Sorry to get off the topic but the smaller the town and the age of the cop makes a big difference in most cases.


Nudge