From: rcp27g@gmail.com   
      
   On 2015-02-25 11:05:57 +0000, Denis McMahon said:   
      
   > 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.   
      
   Not absolutely safe, perfect safety is unachievable.  Just   
   significantly safer than the kind of crossing involved in the crash   
   that inspired this thread.   
      
   > 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.   
      
   Sure, if you go back through several decades of history, you can find   
   examples of incidents of vehicle incursion on railway lines.  Meanwhile   
   this month alone there have been two fatal crashes on crossings with   
   half barriers and no signal interlocking.   
      
   Robin   
      
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