From: denismfmcmahon@gmail.com   
      
   On Fri, 13 Feb 2015 10:20:57 -0500, John W Gintell wrote:   
      
   > In this women's case her car got hit by the descending gate - so it was   
   > similar to the situation where someone tries to beat the orange light   
   > before it turns red.   
      
   We don't know that for sure, because we don't know if the woman drove   
   forwards after the crossing warning activated, or whether she was already   
   in a position where the barrier would hit her vehicle when the warning   
   activated.   
      
   In poor weather, at night, following bumper to bumper traffic on a   
   diversion from a closed highway through an area that she was unfamiliar   
   with, it's quite possible that she was over the stop line before she   
   realised the grade crossing was there, but she could see it wasn't clear   
   to cross so she waited, and then the warnings activated. If she was   
   unable to reverse because the traffic behind was up to her rear bumper, I   
   imagine she spent the last few seconds of her life experiencing a mixture   
   of terror and panic.   
      
   Unless you were a witness or have seen CCTV that shows she encroached on   
   the crossing after the warnings activated, you don't know whether she   
   tried to beat the lights or just got caught in a bad position.   
      
   I'll agree that she shouldn't have been in that position, but the trying   
   to beat the lights theory? That doesn't really tie in with the reported   
   nose to tail slow moving road traffic at the time of the incident.   
      
   I think more likely is a loss of situational awareness and / or a lapse   
   of concentration that led to her crossing the stop line while the   
   crossing was clear, which was an error on her part, but not a deliberate   
   attempt to beat the crossing barrier. I suspect the warnings then   
   activated before the traffic on the far side of the crossing had moved   
   such that she could cross and be clear on the other side, the barrier   
   then came down on her vehicle .....   
      
   --   
   Denis McMahon, denismfmcmahon@gmail.com   
      
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