? Another instance of a navigation app telling the driver, "Turn right now!" ?

It is quite apparent to me that a mixture of our grade crossings along with speaking maps makes our crossings very dangerous to those who are unfamiliar with the area.

Once again, I strongly suspect that the driver was not someone who lives around here who crosses the tracks regularly, but someone from out of town who was confused by the lights and the maps.

We must do a better job of designing these crossings quite separately from anything to do with grade separation. What we have now is not working in the dark for those unfamiliar with the crossings.

Thankfully, once again nobody was hurt. But, for all those on the train and needing to drive across the crossing, there was great inconvenience. Inconvenience can be more than just a nuisance and annoying, but have stressful consequences too.

It seems like we are getting used to it. This is not good.

I like trains

We don't want to spend money of grade separation, but people and "unoccupied" cars continue to be struck regularly at this crossing. What does THAT cost?

Let's see: liability, lives lost (How does one put a figure on that?), repair/replacement of train cars and rail equipment, emergency response resources expended, inconvenience to all of the rail and road users.

At what point will our transit agencies come to the realization that this is a HUGE problem for the communities they serve and collaborate to solve it? They demonstrate a callous disregard for life and safety every day that passes. they were talking about the need for grade separation at this intersection more than twenty years ago when I moved here...and no substantive work has been done to solve the multitude of operational and safety problems that are caused by train preemption (that is, auto delays on nearby roads that occur every time the crossing arms go down).

We are long overdue for this badly needed improvement. Get it done.

Or maybe this was just incompetent operator error. Thousands of other drivers have been able to figure it out for decades, understanding that you NEVER stop on the tracks. We don't need a government "solution" to this one, just hold bad drivers accountable.

Here's a link to a 2013 study "Improved Traffic Control Measures to Prevent Incorrect Turns at Highway-Rail Grade Crossings" -- Web Link

We've already tried the red reflectors across the tracks. Perhaps we need to go all out and use a gated crossing: gates block the train track when there's no train.

It does say he was a drunk driver, let's not blame the tracks again... There is a lot going on as around the tracks that indicates there are tracks there, we can't insure against all stupidity. Driving a 2 ton (or more vehicle) carries a certain amount of responsibility to pay attention (as does being a cyclist or pedestrian for self preservation's sake).

We need more traffic police andore aggressive enforcement of DUI laws. Those people are a threat to everyone.

The updated version mentions the fact that the driver was drunk and not blaming GPS.

Who can blame us jumping to the wrong conclusion about GPS. Drunk drivers are equally unpredictable in my experience.

Hey (not so)commonsense.

Maybe you could explain for all of us what exactly you mean by your incredibly naive and insensitive comment, "just hold bad drivers accountable."

Almost 7 years ago, my Aunt who was visiting from Indiana, became confused by the signal and crossing design at this intersection. She was unable to exit her car in time and was killed. It was a horrible accident and while I assure you she was a competent driver and understood clearly the danger of being trapped on the tracks, something unexpected happened that day. Web Link

This community has seen far too many accidents and deaths at these crossings. Change and safety improvements are long overdue and our government and the taxes we all pay are exactly who we should turn to to make the necessary improvements.

Why do trains have the same braking capability they had in 1910?

State run industry equals zero profits, zero R&D, zero technical innovation.

^ Something about steel-on-steel coefficient of friction.
Might try retro-rockets or throwing out an anchor.

@Musical - replace steel wheels with rubber, replace steel tracks with asphalt, replace 19th century tech with something that can stop, something quieter, something more flexible, something less expensive. A bus? Not glamorous enough for the train zealots though.

Web Link

Cue in the jokers who failed high-school physics...

@Hawaiian Bob

Replace drunk drivers with sober ones.
Take the phones out of distracted drivers hands drivers
Replace incompetent drivers with responsible attentive ones
Not glamorous (or expensive enough) for the grade separation zealots though.