Merritt Mullen
The street crosses the RR tracks at a pretty sharp angle. The barriers are placed perpendicular to the direction of the street, creating triangles one side of which is the train, one side of which is the barriers and one side of which is the far curb. The car is stopped within one of the triangles. I tried to draw it but gave up. I also tried to google-map the intersection, but couldn't find it easily.
Draw an X. Now squash the top down until there's a pretty obtuse angle on the top and bottom and a sharp angle at the sides. The train goes from top right to bottom left. The street goes from top left to bottom right.
The person in the car would have to stop right next to the the track, with the front of the car only a few feet from the pbutting train. The barrier would have to come down after the car had pbutted. I can only think that the trapped car was stopped behind another car stopped on the tracks waiting for the light to change. The trapped car somehow didn't make it and waited helplessly as the train approached.
Or maybe the trapped car was really short and the driver (probably talking on a cellphone) obliviously drove under the barrier. Amazing that (s)he noticed there was a train pbutting...
-- Cheers, Bev (Registered Linux User 85683) ===================================================================== Some people have told me they don't think a fat penguin really embodies the grace of Linux, which just tells me they have never seen an angry penguin charging at them in excess of 100mph. They'd be a lot more careful about what they say if they had. -- Linus Torvalds
