Many years ago, my wife and I were taking the Starlight north from Sacramento. We were sitting up late in the lounge, and somewhere around Redding, we stopped for a while so a tow truck and the CHP could get some optimist's truck off the track. Fortunately, the police got in touch with the railroad and got the train stopped before we hit the truck.

When I was working at UC Davis (10+ years ago), I was driving home from work on the surface streets one day and came across a car that had gotten stuck between the two main tracks on that crossing near Chiles. He'd blown out his front tires digging them down into the ballast trying to get out. Another fellow had stopped to help. I think he was a fan as well. One of us called 911 and the other called the UP emergency number. Eventually the CHP showed up and we went on our way, but we did make sure the railroad was stopped before we left. The guy had probably hit the curve before the crossing too quickly, lost control and wound up between the tracks.