Hi, Lee...

 LL{at}> When it comes to trains, the train always wins.  The other day
 LL{at}> a fellow was killed by a train, the poor fellow having fallen
 LL{at}> asleep on the railroad tracks.  He never knew what hit him.  Or
 LL{at}> in his case, what ran over him.

  I have NO SYMPATHY for someone who tries to beat a train to a
railroad crossing, and is either injured, maimed, or killed. A car
weighs 1 ton...a diesel locomotive weighs 250 tons...a long freight
train with multiple locomotives on the point can weigh over 12,000
tons...it's no contest. 

  One incident here had a lady driving down a street named "Baseline
Road" (so named as it runs along a U.S. "base line")...she had her
windows up, air conditioning and radio on, and she was talking on
her cellphone. 

  She went RIGHT THROUGH the lowered crossing gate at the double 
tracked crossing. On the first track, a northbound freight train 
heading into Little Rock had just exited the crossing. But, at the 
same time, coming at full throttle (79 mph) on the second track, was 
the southbound Amtrak Texas Eagle passenger train.

  Just as the train reached the crossing, her car went through the
lowered gate, and was broadsided by the train, which obviously was
thrown into "emergency brake stop" position by the engineer, who
could have never known this was to occur. 

  The coupler likely went right through the vehicle, with the force 
probably decapitating her in an instant...she likely never knew what 
hit her. And, the poor engineer, has to live with the horror the rest 
of his life that he had to watch her die...even though he could do 
nothing to prevent the tragedy. Go to www.wx1der.com/rxr.htm for a 
public service annnouncement and a poem that I wrote on railroad 
crossing safety.

 LL{at}> Bush still has time to start a war with Iran and then declare martial
 LL{at}> law, thus suspending US elections indefinitely.

  Don't give him any ideas!!

Daryl

... Race a train to a railroad crossing, and you'll be DEAD WRONG!!
--- MultiMail/Win32 v0.49
                      
--- Virtual Advanced Ver 2 for DOS 
* Origin: 1:382/33 - The Thunderbolt BBS wx1der.dyndns.org 501-224-0915