Second crossing accident in a few months

[trmn8r]

Been a railroader only two years and spent 8 months of that furloughed, but I got some bad karma or juju going on I guess.

First one we were going faster but semi was barely on the tracks, just hit his front end and knocked him off the tracks.

Tonight still no fatality thank god but much worse. Leaving Belen NM headed back toward Amarillo. Still in the belen yard actually. Pulling 21 MPH going around a curve leaving the yard. Fuel truck semi barely on tracks when we first spotted him, started blowing horn and trying to stop, he kept moving forward, truck was jerking like he was stalling it or something. About 8 out 10 cars from the crossing the engineer and I both threw it onto emergency at the same time. No chance of stopping. Hit a loaded diesel fuel tanker square on the side of the trailer. Split it wife open, wrapped it around the front of our lead motor. 7000 gallons of fuel in the air, raining down on our motor. truck stayed attached to the trailer, caused it to flip over in the air (at one point the cab of the truck was above our motor and that's 15 or 20 feet above the ground). Slammed his cab back into the ground upside doen crushing the cab down trapping the driver, pinned his ankle, couldn't get him out for a while. As soon as we hit and I saw all the fuel go on the air and then cover the motor I went into self preservation mode, engineer was doing "what we're supposed to do" announcing emergency emergency emergency over the radio and trying to tell dispatcher what was going on ... All the while all I'm doing is smelling fuel, grabbed my paperwork and RAN for the backdoor of the locomotive yelling "we got to get the f*ck out of here, we got to get the f*ck out of here right now"! At first I felt bad leaving whether he came out not, now after the adrenaline is gone I really don't, I'm saving myself and I tried to get him to go but didn't wsit for him and wouldn't wait next time.

Fuel never caught fire, so in the end it doesn't matter this time, but had it hit the right spot on the motor it could have I imagine, or even a spark from the wheels from throwing the train in emergency. I'm no fire expert but diesel will ignite at some point ... I'm not going to be surrounded by 7000 gallons when I learn that point.

All ok now in a limo headed back to amarillo, no one else in here is taking I just needed to vent I guess and didn't know where else to go to talk about it. Can't really say anything on FB about it, too many company officials on there, not that we did anything wrong or are any trouble, just don't care fit them to know my personal thoughts on anything, this or otherwise.

Thanks for listening lol

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[Xkvator]

WoW...! glad yinzer all ok...lucky it wasn't gasoline or flammable gas...

[Margarita]

Bless you, darlin', I'm glad everyone is all right.

[stoney]

Wow.... glad you're OK!

[fred1369]

Glad you survived. Don't want to see you on the History Channel's great train disasters. In a few years it will make a good story, you can tell us around the campfire.

[Sleeveless]

I can't imagine how scary that was. So glad you are alright.

[orbit]

Glad you're here to tell the tale.

[stupidglide]

It only takes a moment to change the world, whether its looking both ways, or forging ahead, against caution....................
Glad you are ok, and there wasn't a blaze that caused a major disaster.

Self preservation in a situation like this, is NOT a bad thing, if you die for a cause, you can't fight for it anymore.

Find someone OUTSIDE the job place to talk and vent to, and work through this.

Again, glad you lived to fight another day.

[Woody218]

Les, glad you are okay!!! My nephew was an engineer for BNSF in California, and he has all kinds of crossing accident stories as well. The one he has the most difficulty relating is when his train hit a car that ran the crossing gates, and the car had a lady and three kids in it. They were all killed. Now, he's the yard master up in Oregon, so he doesn't take trains out anymore.

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[Fe Butte]

Dang!!!


Glad everyone is more or less OK and nothing caught fire.

What a mess that is.

[why_me]

Glad things were not worse and that you made it out safe.

[Dinero]

Man, Les. You sure have some adventures.

The floor would have been so damn slippery that I wouldn't have been able to run.

[fr8dog]

Holy smoke, trmn8r!! Glad there was no fire and that every one involved is still with us.













I am sure the NTSB and the EPA (fuel spill) will be along shortly to bayonet the survivors.

[ms_tapestry]

I'm going to give you a big smooshy hug next weekend. Just sayin'

[MrSurly]

#1. Glad you got outta there!
#2. Did you follow the 'procedure" and do what was expected?
#3. Do they actually HAVE a "soaked in fuel while moving and making sparks"...procedure?
#4. If you think you may have violated policy or broken a rule or in any way put someone else in some danger.... DON"T post about it anywhere on the internet!
It doesn't take much Google-fu to make these threads show up. And yes, this is all public. Very very public....and permanently non-retractable.