OK, now here we have a case of a bunch of dumbbuttes who entered a railroad grade crossing when they could plainly see that there was no room for them to exit out the other side. A bunch of them got crumpled up into big balls of flaming, bloody tinfoil as a result.
Here in SoCal, some of the Metrolink (heavy commuter rail, much like the Metra train in the story) grade crossing signals are integrated with nearby traffic signals: when a train is approaching and the crossing arms are down, the traffic signal a half-block away will also turn red in any direction leading toward the crossing (i.e. through traffic and left turns from the cross street). This helps keep dumbpoos from gridlocking the intersection.
In addition, just about every intersection is equipped with technology to allow an approaching emergency vehicle to change the signals to red, bringing cross traffic to a stop and making it safer for them to cross.
Now, clearly the people who got creamed in Chicago have nobody to blame but themselves for what happened. However, given that the US is full of idiot drivers, and given that we have the technology to help avoid collisions of this type, shouldn't we do everything we possibly can to keep the railroad right-of-way clear of retards? Shouldn't every grade crossing should be coordinated with nearby traffic signals such that traffic heading toward the crossing gets a red light, but traffic already within the crossing area gets a green so that those cars can quickly drain out and clear the area? If such a system had been in place in Elmwood Park yesterday, the vehicles on the tracks would not have been trapped behind other stopped vehicles and might have been able to drive out of harm's way before the train struck them.
What does the UP-Metra have to pay for repairs and cleanup after a collision such as this? How much of this cost is ever recovered from the dolts who blocked the tracks with their vehciles? How much of these costs are simply eaten by the taxpayers? My guess is that such a system would pay for itself after the first avoided collision.
