Personal Injury Law

Car versus Train; Which will win in a crash?

By Steve Lombardi

Josh Miller is somewhat of a lucky man; not wearing his seat belt and failing to yield to an oncoming train. Guess who won that collision. Yeah, it's an easy one to figure out. Donald Ahlhelm, the train operator was probably pretty surprised at the time the 2005 Nissan Titan pulled across the tracks and in front of the train. Now I will say that most cities and towns have ordinances that require the train engineer to sound the train horn three times as they approach an intersection. It might be interesting to know if that was done in this instance. The Iowa State patrol didn't issue the train operator a ticket but you never know.

VEHICLE #1 WAS WESTBOUND ON COUNTY ROAD 205TH (T-77) JUST WEST OF THE ENTRANCE TO CEDAR BEND PARK. DRIVER OF #1 APPARENTLY DID NOT SEE THE SOUTHBOUND TRAIN NEARING 205TH, AND AS HE ATTEMPTED TO CROSS THE TRACKS VEHICLE #1 WAS STRUCK BROADSIDE BY THE SOUTHBOUND TRAIN. AFTER THE COLLISION VEHICLE #1 WAS SPUN AROUND FACING EAST AND THEN DID EVENTUALLY COME TO A REST IN THE SOUTH DITCH FACING EASTBOUND. AS IT ENTERED THE DITCH, VEHICLE # 1 STRUCK THE WARNING SIGNS FOR THE RAIL ROAD CROSSING FOR EASTBOUND TRAFFIC

The Waverly Democrat reported this to be a rare occurrence in Bremer County.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNnZPQL2S1U

Full post as published by Des Moines Personal Injury Lawyer on May 15, 2009 (boomark / email).