Alan C. Miller Wrote:
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>snip<

> Car[s] were
> waiting, turning through 7-11, reversing on the
> one-way street, many probably drunk being it was
> just after 2am, a semi-truck came and stopped,
> then a dualie gas tanker. Cars were coming and
> going in all directions.

Which indicates that most people are able to avoid driving into the side of the train.

> There was no flare in
> the street, this was the main crossing to the
> bridge, it was fairly dark, and the rail car
> across 23rd was a mineral brown hopper. The
> train had been there at least 20 minutes when I
> left.

They're known as fusees on the railroad, and only burn for 10 minutes.

> My thought at the time was this was one of
> the most poorly thought out rail-public road
> safety issues I had ever seen, a complete traffic
> cluster-F, and an accident waiting to happen.

The crossing has never been protected by anything other than crossbucks and advance warning signs.

>snip<

> I had noticed the Park bridge warning
> lights still on in Alameda, indicating the train
> was probably still blocking the other side of the
> bridge.

Thanks for mentioning it. This may become an issue if the case goes to court. Apparently the Park Street bridge tenders have been taking it upon themselves to activate the BRIDGE CLOSED lights and gates when they hear a train approaching the crossing. It should be noted that the tenders are county employees and have no authority or affliation with the railroad, or its operations. Given the position of the bridge gates, claxons and lights on the Oakland side, they can distract a vehicle operator from realizing a train has stopped on the crossing. The bridge tenders didn't previously do that, and it's unclear why they're doing it now.

>snip<

> Firefighters were
> extracting a man from the wreckage. He didn't
> look too good, but appeared to be alive. There
> didn't appear to be an airbag deployed.

Reported to be a non-life threatening leg injury.

> When I left earlier, there was no warning for
> motorists, no flare, no crew member on the ground
> with a flag. It does not appear to me the crew
> took proper precautions to ensure the safety of
> motorists. They may not have realized their train
> was still fowling 29th & 23rd, it appeared to be a
> pretty long train. Though it may seem hard to
> miss a train, the complete unexpectedness of a
> dark grain car sitting in the middle of a main
> street could cause disorientation -- as one
> spectator in the 7-11 parking lot put it to his
> friends, "To be honest, I probably would have ran
> into it." Possibly the train length should be
> limited to three less cars if the train has to
> wait up the track, but certainly the crew should
> have placed a flare. According to the recent
> article, crossing warning lights will be installed
> in about a year. Probably the process should have
> been started earlier. There is significant
> traffic at this crossing at 2am.

The city of Oakland has had years to start the process of installing better crossing protection there, but didn't. Gee, there's a shock!

I don't see anything in your report about why the train was stopped blocking the crossing in the first place. Here's the answer: when they arrived they found that ConAgra had left cars blocking all tracks. Thus, they couldn't proceed any further. The switchmen got off the engine and tried to find a way to shove the cars ahead of them into the clear, but couldn't, so they were in the process of walking to the rear of their train so they could shove back when the truck drove into the side of the train.

As an aside, it's been reported that the truck driver alleges his brakes failed.