Video: Amtrak Train Strikes Car on the NEC.

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Thirdrail7

Thirdrail7

Engineer
Joined
Jul 9, 2014
Messages
4,542
I guess no one noticed but a few days ago, someone (who was allegedly under the influence) made their way onto the tracks, just east of PJC. She had the presence of mind to get out of her vehicle and call for assistance. The police arrived and their dashcam captured the event.

Amtrak train slams into car stuck on tracks in New Jersey. Police dashcam captures crash


Here is the accompanying article:

https://patch.com/new-jersey/west-windsor/drunk-drivers-car-hit-train-after-getting-stuck-police

Officers arrived in two cars and discovered a 2012 Toyota Camry facing east on the track, police said. The driver was on the scene, and her father and sister had arrived in a white BMW to help her, police said.

Police dispatch notified all trains to stop because the car was stuck on the track and there were people close by, police said. Another officer soon arrived and parked behind the BMW. As he got out of his car, a train began to rapidly approach the scene, police said.

The officers and the driver took cover, while the sister and her father remained in their car and moved it up slightly, police said. The arriving officer took cover behind the concrete bridge abutment as the Amtrak Train struck the Toyota Camry, police said.
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I don't think you'll see that ACS for a few weeks.

PS: Track speed is 110mph
 
This may sound stupid, but I hope the engineer knew there weren't any people in the car. It would be a horrible feeling to hit a car at speed and think there might be people in it.
It doesn't look like the train was doing 110 mph so maybe he got the word that there was a car on the tracks, but got it too late to slow down much.
 
Hah, I was wondering where on the NEC a car could have been hit at a grade crossing in NJ!

Also the article says, "and several train cars were heavily damaged". Not sure how this happened though. Looks like the engine threw the car far from the rest of the train.
 
Ziv said:
This may sound stupid, but I hope the engineer knew there weren't any people in the car. It would be a horrible feeling to hit a car at speed and think there might be people in it.
It doesn't look like the train was doing 110 mph so maybe he got the word that there was a car on the tracks, but got it too late to slow down much.
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Nope. The crew wasn't notified. They saw the equipment and placed the train in emergency prior to impact. It stopped almost a mile later.

cocojacoby said:
Hah, I was wondering where on the NEC a car could have been hit at a grade crossing in NJ!

Also the article says, "and several train cars were heavily damaged". Not sure how this happened though. Looks like the engine threw the car far from the rest of the train.
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What you don't see is part of the car was pushed down the tracks and became wedged under the engine. The debris damaged the undercarriage of some of the cars.
 
AmtrakBlue said:
From the article: "Police dispatch notified all trains to stop"
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The one thing that I can say about that is simple. It can take some time to happen. The 911 dispatch center calls a number it and they may have to call another person, etc. Ideally, the number that would be called is the Chief Dispatcher who can order things to stop him or herself.
 
crescent-zephyr said:
So the police sent officers to the scene but didn’t call Amtrak?
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AmtrakBlue said:
From the article: "Police dispatch notified all trains to stop"
Click to expand...


At the risk of seeming like a Monday morning quarterback, two officers and relatives of the driver arrived at the scene before calls reached the railroad.

Something needs to be streamlined. Perhaps they should call the railroad as soon as there is a report instead of waiting for it to be confirmed?
 
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Thirdrail7 said:
At the risk of seeming like a Monday morning quarterback, two officers and relatives of the driver arrived at the scene before calls reached the railroad.

Something needs to be streamlined. Perhaps they should call the railroad as soon as there is a report instead of waiting for it to be confirmed?
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TR, I agree with you. Even if it means putting out a Form D or an addition to the TSRB for Restricted Speed in the area of until it's confirmed by either PD, FD, EMS, or a Train Crew. Perhaps that will be addressed in the coming weeks.

On a side note, it's IMO a blessing in disguise that this occurred late at night. If this were around say 5-6pm it was cause mass chaos.

Looking at the schedules for Transit, a train is out of PJC at 1149pm and this occured at 1157pm. Now IF that Transit train was on time, that gives a small window of 8 minutes for this to happen. But 8 minutes is more then enough time for things to go wrong on the RR.
 
How is an emergency stop like this handled in ACSES II territory. Presumably using the signaling system would be more timely than trying to issue a Form D or updating TSRB, no? I am assuming the ACSES Radio Link can be used for situations like this?
 
This all begs the question of how a 2012 Toyota Camry - not a Land Rover or off-road vehicle, a Camry(!) - got into the guage of NEC Track 4. That's not easy. It requires first crossing the side track for the NJT Princeton Dinky, then jumping over the outer rail of of the mainline. This is all after driving down public street Washington Avenue then turning up on the Amtrak R/W access road before deciding, "gee, let's cross these tracks." I have a 2012 Camry, and it's a pefectly fine car, but it is not going to go very far off-road and is certainly not going to negociate obstructions like rails very well. Speed bumps are about as far as a Camry will go for clearing obstructions. I get that people can do some surprisingly outlandish things while under the influence, but this one is a beauty. At least no one got hurt.

I'm trying to picture the call to the insurance company. Love to have a recording of that. "Hi, I had a little accident last night. My car was hit while parked. Well, it was parked on railroad tracks and got hit by a train going about 100 miles per hour. Damage? Looks pretty bad. Oh, by the way, the train pushed it into a police car, and that car is also totaled. Is this going to raise my rate, or do I have accident forgiveness?"
 
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PRR 60 said:
This all begs the question of how a 2012 Toyota Camry - not a Land Rover or off-road vehicle, a Camry(!) - got into the guage of NEC Track 4. That's not easy. It requires first crossing the side track for the NJT Princeton Dinky, then jumping over the outer rail of of the mainline. This is all after driving down public street Washington Avenue then turning up on the Amtrak R/W access road before deciding, "gee, let's cross these tracks." I have a 2012 Camry, and it's a pefectly fine car, but it is not going to go very far off-road and is certainly not going to negociate obstructions like rails very well. Speed bumps are about as far as a Camry will go for clearing obstructions. I get that people can do some surprisingly outlandish things while under the influence, but this one is beauty. At least no one got hurt.

I'm trying to picture the call to the insurance company. Love to have a recording of that. "Hi, I had a little accident last night. My car was hit while parked. Well, it was parked on railroad tracks and got hit by a train going about 100 miles per hour. Damage? Looks pretty bad. Oh, by the way, the train pushed it into a police car, and that car is also totaled. Is this going to raise my rate, or do I have accident forgiveness?"
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She'll probably blame it on GPS.
 

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