From: denismfmcmahon@gmail.com   
      
   On Tue, 24 Feb 2015 03:06:14 -0800, rcp27g wrote:   
      
   > On Monday, 23 February 2015 23:50:57 UTC+1, Denis McMahon  wrote:   
   >> On Mon, 23 Feb 2015 21:10:12 +0100, bob wrote:   
   >>   
   >> > I contend that drivers who are willing to drive around crossings, as   
   >> > a calculated risk, will not be willing to drive through two physical   
   >> > barriers, a process which will almost certainly case actual damage to   
   >> > their car in the process.   
   >>   
   >> I contend that these two incidents in which cars were deliberately   
   >> crashed through full barrier crossings prove that you're wrong:   
   >>   
   >> http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1377228/Getaway-driver-crashes-   
   >> level-crossing-barrier-hit-120-tonne-train.html   
   >>   
   >> http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-16709841   
   >   
   > So the best you can come up with are people in stolen vehicles involved   
   > in high speed police chases, where the stolen vehicles do indeed suffer   
   > damage.  And these incidents are so out of the ordinary that they get   
   > reported on the national news.   
      
   You're talking about making crossings (and indeed all railway   
   infrastructure) absolutely safe from vehicle incursion. I'm pointing out   
   that incidents of deliberate incursion through fully gated crossings are   
   a matter of public record.   
      
   You may recall an incident on I think the North Downs line where a Cement   
   Mixer fell onto a train. Then there was of course the Great Heck crash. I   
   also seem to recall in incident in I think the West Midlands involving a   
   minibus and a sharp bend, and ones near Salisbury and I think in East   
   Anglia where a vehicle left the road and ended up on the track. I think   
   there was also an incident within the last few years of an HST hitting   
   quad bikes in South Wales on the GWML, and at least one incident of a   
   vehicle rolling through a boundary fence onto the line from a car park   
   adjacent to railway property.   
      
   I also note that there was an incident near Bedwyn recently where a   
   vehicle struck the parapet of an overbridge, which then fell onto the   
   line where it was struck by an HST causing some damage to the latter.   
      
   Level crossings are not the only places that vehicular incursions occur.   
   Vehicular incursions can occur anywhere where vehicles are used near to   
   railways, they may be deliberate or accidental, and they may involve any   
   size of vehicle. If you wish to fully protect the railway from Vehicular   
   incursions, then you must at all potential incursion locations provide   
   physical barriers of sufficient strength and suitable size to prevent   
   incursion by any vehicle.   
      
   If you don't want to cough up the expense of doing that, then you assess   
   the costs and benefits of different solutions applicable to individual   
   locations, and apply the solution which you determine most appropriate   
   for the location.   
      
   --   
   Denis McMahon, denismfmcmahon@gmail.com   
      
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