Train vs. Truck: Everyone Loses

Just as Lisa and I were getting ready to drive over to the grocery store this evening, the radio scanner lit up as a Union Pacific train crew radioed the dispatcher and said, "We just hit a truck at milepost 273.5."

( Tying up the mainline the hard way )

While this was disruptive for the railroad, disturbing for the crew, and of course devastating for the owner of the now-ex-pickup truck, all in all everyone got lucky. There could easily have been three dead people on the tracks, victims of their own stupidity in trying to drive over a railroad track without benefit of a grade crossing, and a derailed train and injured or killed crew. As it was, there was only property damage, delay, and inconvenience, and an expensive lesson for a foolish pickup truck driver.