Advocacy & Safety - San Jose bicycist killed by train

A couple of things to be noted multiple trains at the same time, the quietness of the trains. Also trains can move a lot faster than people expect.

What is sad is this was a totally preventable death, had the cyclist not crossed against a red (with lowered gates)

http://www.mercurynews.com/valley/ci_12545818

The bicyclist who was struck and killed Friday afternoon by a Caltrain south of the San Jose Diridon Station has been identified by the Santa Clara County Medical Examiner's Office as Charles Subia, 38, of San Jose.

A Caltrain spokeswoman said Friday that the fatal collision appeared to be accidental.

The 4:10 p.m. incident occurred after the gates at the Auzerais Street crossing had been lowered for an Altamont Commuter Express train traveling northbound, Christine Dunn, a Caltrain spokeswoman, said Friday. After the ACE train went by, Subia went around the lowered gates into the path of the unoccupied Caltrain, which was traveling southbound about 35 mph.

"It looks as though he waited for the ACE train and then did not look in the other direction," Dunn said. "Trains are not as noisy as you think, so you should never ever go around a lowered gate."

Subia was taken to Santa Clara Valley Medical Center, where he died of his injuries.

Contact Mark Gomez at mgomez@mercurynews.com or 408-920-5869

There's nothing accidental about someone ducking under the gates. That's stupidity. To do so on a multi-rail main is idiotic.

I can show you railroad/railfan A&S-style forums that would tear this up to pieces. People darting through/going under gates are equatable to wrong way cyclists here.

-Kurt

Yup, read about this one awhile ago on my daily search (http://news.google.com/news?pz=1&ned=us&hl=en&q=bicyclist+killed). Another senseless death.

Yup, read about this one awhile ago on my daily search (http://news.google.com/news?pz=1&ned=us&hl=en&q=bicyclist+killed). Another senseless death.

Yeah, but totally the cyclist's fault.

Lowered gates, plus flashing lights... jeeze just what kind of a warning do they want? :rolleyes:

facepalm

I've seen people do this on rides I've been on. Fortunately no one has been stuck yet.

When RTD rolled new light rail tracks next to our old house, they sent us out a pamphlet asking some questions, one was: How much noise will the train create?

Their answer, the light rail trains are so quiet they had to implement a system of bells and horns when they cross intersections so that they can be heard.

Its real easy to understand how the cyclist simply "didn't hear the train coming." Which is why its especially important to never cross the lowered gates.

I watched a close call a couple weeks ago. I was waiting at a set of light rail tracks. A train went by, but the gates stayed down, so I waited. Another cyclist came up beside me and went between the gates. Just barely missed the train coming the other way.

These may be light rail trains, but some of the new heavy rail commuter trains are just as quiet, and can go even faster than most light rail systems top speed of 55mph.

But those safety gates that come down when a train is crossing the road are for CARS. I'm on a bike, not a car, I don't have to follow the rules meant for cars. I also pull out into cross traffic when the light is red and I've never been hit, rules are for suckers. The ******* cagers usually beep, **** them! That train should have seen the biker and stopped!


These may be light rail trains, but some of the new heavy rail commuter trains are just as quiet, and can go even faster than most light rail systems top speed of 55mph.

The Amtrak Acela trains ride the local rails around here. They can top speeds of 100mph. Yet people still don't respect them and there are usually a couple of people hit every year.

I don't even like standing on the commuter rail platform when they pass. The wind they generate is enough to knock you backwards if you don't brace yourself.

Its real easy to understand how the cyclist simply "didn't hear the train coming." Which is why its especially important to never cross the lowered gates.

Light rail, my foot. An F40PH hauling at 79mph is virtually undetectable by anything short of far-off rail squeal until it is about 150 feet away.

Some good examples:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EniUMok0NfI&feature=related

Some excellent Amtrak runbys and relatively quiet TRCX service here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIZXF6_FTZ0

Now if you aren't adverse to the graphic, this video shows a nearly identical accident to what the OP described. Woman darts out to cross, and is struck by a passing Metra consist on the inside line:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FV6AptQ_08I

-Kurt

P.S.: Let me guess - this was in one of those areas where the local (inane) homeowners associations got some kind of "whistle-ban" in place, eh?

In December 2007 here in Little Rock, Aaron Simpson, aged 37 and probably carrying a little too much Christmas cheer, rode past stopped traffic, flashing lights, and a lowered barrier, smack into the side of a passing freight train. Needless to say, his family had a very gloomy holiday.

And I think it was the year before last that the two would-have-been winners of the Paris-Roubaix race were disqualified for ducking under a lowered railroad crossing barrier and hot-footing it for the finish line while the rest of the pack was waiting for the passing train.

Both the ACE train and CalTrain are full sized engines. The light rail tracks are west of there a bit(not by much).
When the second ACE train going north lets it's passengers off in Fremont, they always walk across the tracks at Fremont Blvd while the gates are down. The Amtrak sometimes gets there while the ACE train is still offloading, and juts out over the crosswalk when it stops. Someday this same thing will happen to those pedestrians if they aren't careful.
The railroad personnel always refer to people that are in the railroad right of way and those crossing while the safety arms are down as "trespassers".

Both the ACE train and CalTrain are full sized engines.

ACE, F40PH-2C/-3C; Caltrain various F40PH variants + MPI MP36PH-3C:

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/pictures%5C35379%5Cace%203103%2002%20newark%207-3-08.jpg
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=1348180

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/pictures%5C33219%5C1e%2006-01-2008%20California%20101.jpg
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=1201967

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/pictures%5C20634%5CP1210010a.jpg
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=677988


The railroad personnel always refer to people that are in the railroad right of way and those crossing while the safety arms are down as "trespassers".

As they are.

-Kurt

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/pictures%5C20634%5CP1210010a.jpg
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=677988


(cudak888's model)
http://www.jaysmarine.com/MP36_large_1.jpg

nearly the same. :p

Is it the same model?

I'm not too surprised as that is a working class area and there are quite a few people getting around on bikes, some of them are the deranged riding-against-traffic type who show no acknowledgement of traffic laws and generally no prudence. I don't know if this person was the latter but I'm sorry for his family's loss, regardless.

nearly the same. :p

Is it the same model?

Caltrain's is the MP36PH-3C, Metra's is the MP36PH-3S. Former uses a separate CAT 6-cylinder to drive the HEP ("head end power," that is, power for trailing car A/C, lighting, etc) generator, the latter uses shaft drive off the prime mover.

-Kurt

P.S.: Thanks for the plug on the Metra model.

Chalk up another one for Mr. Darwin. How can someone not see a sixty ton locomotive bearing down on them in broad daylight? It's not like they can sneak up on somebody. They're on TRACKS!! They're ENORMOUS!!! It's like getting run over by a house. :eek: "Gee, I wonder what these big poles with flashing red lights all over them are doing blocking my way?" :wtf: It's hard to believe how some people just totally disregard their own safety. My sympathies are with the engineer. He'll need counsiling for a while to deal with something he had no control over. :(

I wasn't sure what kinda train those were, just using the local light rail as an example. That's even more crazy to do it on a heavy rail track.

In a similar manner, a youth on a razor scooter was just killed by a light rail train in san jose. He went under the lighted barrier bars, avoided a train moving in one direction and got hit by one going in the other direction.

In a similar manner, a youth on a razor scooter was just killed by a light rail train in san jose. He went under the lighted barrier bars, avoided a train moving in one direction and got hit by one going in the other direction.


I think he got impatient waiting. I crossed there to go to the credit union Wednesday, and in the afternoon the southbound light rail has the road stopped, then the arms stay down while the northbound train switches tracks and comes by. I think that Leigh was stopped for almost three minutes, maybe a bit more.

I think he got impatient waiting.

Oh, the old "motorist intolerance" mentality?

-Kurt

http://i727.photobucket.com/albums/ww280/davidb3697/450bikerace1.jpg

In a similar manner, a youth on a razor scooter was just killed by a light rail train in san jose. He went under the lighted barrier bars, avoided a train moving in one direction and got hit by one going in the other direction.

Operation Lifesaver PSAs try to emphasize the difficulties in judging a train's speed and one portrays anxious teens who befall the same fate in a car.

Too much tragedy in any case.

Chalk up another one for Mr. Darwin. How can someone not see a sixty ton locomotive bearing down on them in broad daylight? It's not like they can sneak up on somebody. They're on TRACKS!! They're ENORMOUS!!! It's like getting run over by a house. :eek: "Gee, I wonder what these big poles with flashing red lights all over them are doing blocking my way?" :wtf: It's hard to believe how some people just totally disregard their own safety. My sympathies are with the engineer. He'll need counsiling for a while to deal with something he had no control over. :(

I don't think he just ran across the tracks trying to beat the train. One train had passed and the arms were still down, so he went around them thinking that the danger had passed. Unfortunately there was another train coming in the opposite direction, hidden from view by the first one.

I can't say for sure, but I seem to remember this being one of the much more common types of train/pedestrian accidents.

http://i727.photobucket.com/albums/ww280/davidb3697/450bikerace1.jpg

Were you expecting anything else from hipsters?



I don't think he just ran across the tracks trying to beat the train. One train had passed and the arms were still down, so he went around them thinking that the danger had passed. Unfortunately there was another train coming in the opposite direction, hidden from view by the first one.

That still doesn't make it right.

-Kurt

A couple of things to be noted multiple trains at the same time, the quietness of the trains. Also trains can move a lot faster than people expect.

What is sad is this was a totally preventable death, had the cyclist not crossed against a red (with lowered gates)

http://www.mercurynews.com/valley/ci_12545818

The bicyclist who was struck and killed Friday afternoon by a Caltrain south of the San Jose Diridon Station has been identified by the Santa Clara County Medical Examiner's Office as Charles Subia, 38, of San Jose.

A Caltrain spokeswoman said Friday that the fatal collision appeared to be accidental.

The 4:10 p.m. incident occurred after the gates at the Auzerais Street crossing had been lowered for an Altamont Commuter Express train traveling northbound, Christine Dunn, a Caltrain spokeswoman, said Friday. After the ACE train went by, Subia went around the lowered gates into the path of the unoccupied Caltrain, which was traveling southbound about 35 mph.

"It looks as though he waited for the ACE train and then did not look in the other direction," Dunn said. "Trains are not as noisy as you think, so you should never ever go around a lowered gate."

Subia was taken to Santa Clara Valley Medical Center, where he died of his injuries.

Contact Mark Gomez at mgomez@mercurynews.com or 408-920-5869

Exactly, had the cyclist obeyed the rules of the road he'd still be alive today. He made the decision to cross the tracks after the first train passed, instead of waiting for the barricades to go up.

As everyone else was saying, easily preventable and it was because of the lack of forethought into crossing with the lowered gates.

I have talked to the conductors/overhead other conversations on a few occasions about cars/bikes/pedestrians getting hit because they are either trying to get through before the train, not paying attention, or a vehicle got caught stopped on tracks. Specifically for Caltrain, it seems to happen quite a bit. It is just sad to see that people are not thinking about what implications they might have for taking that risk.

I spent the past weekend pedaling a lot in and around San Jose at the biennial Smart Cycling conference held by the League... Most of the local riders I saw were on the sidewalks, so I'm not surprised somebody tried to jump the tracks like that. Being from Arkansas, where the only rail service is an Amtrak train that stops by two or three times a week at 3:00 a.m., I was fascinated by the availability and connectivity of both CalTrain and the VTA. I had to leave early to catch a flight yesterday morning, but a dozen or two folks stayed over to take a bike/light rail tour of the cycling facilities in the Valley...