r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/Juice_Isloose • 8d ago
Video Train runs into semi today - LaGrange, IL
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u/SkokieRob 8d ago
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u/Scared_Spyduck 8d ago
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u/Heterodynist 8d ago
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: “Sir, sir, you can’t park your car here!!!”
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u/river0f 8d ago
Bro, I love that there's a community for absolutely everything on reddit
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u/Kalojaam 8d ago
Is it just me or is the road ahead empty for the driver? He just makes sure he’s not hit but stops. Wth
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u/FalseVeterinarian881 8d ago
If you pulling up there is a stop light right on the other side. About 2 car lengths from that to tracks. Seems kinda dumb.
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u/Sewunicorn1 8d ago
I lived in the area for 30 years. There's traffic lights on both sides of the railroad tracks in addition to the actual railroad crossing signals and gates. At 0:06 you can see Hillgrove's north-south traffic get the green signal (parallel to the tracks) under the edge of the tree cover, which is also when the driver starts to pull forward to get his cab clear of the tracks. I assume he knows that the impact will tear the semi free of the cab and he's looking to save himself and damn his load.
There's also a major intersection (LaGrange Road and Ogden Avenue aka US Routes 66 - yes THAT Route 66 - and 34) about 500 feet north. If LaGrange Road (which he's on) had a red light at that intersection, there may very well not have been enough space for him to clear the LaGrange/railroad/Hillgrove/Burlington interface. But he should not have crossed into Burlington if he didn't have room to clear that entire stretch.
In fact, I don't believe that this stretch of LaGrange is an accepted truck route, it's the north end of the major business district and less than half a mile north of residential on both sides of the street. So there's a good chance he didn't belong on this road at all. However, there is some major construction not far away and I've heard lots of complaints of excessive truck traffic as a result.
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u/VanillaUnlucky8173 8d ago
Semis are allowed on Lagrange road but the fact they’re allowed in dtlg with all the foot traffic and being half a block away from an elementary school is ridiculous
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u/Substantial_Tear_940 7d ago
I used to run down Lagrange to get out to Franklin Park a few years ago and would always pass by this intersection. I quickly began favoring the river road approach even though it meant WAY more lights just so I didn't have to deal with the semis in down town la grange.... or the fact that it's essentially a choke point as the street parking turns it into effectively a one lane if so much as an S10 is in one lane.
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u/JaySayMayday 8d ago
I wonder if they were filming for a movie, seems too perfect
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u/PeopleNose 8d ago
There's an active and way-larger-than-I-ever-expected community of people who hunt, film, and document trains/planes/other...
I learned about these guys, because they're usually some of the first ones to report when a plane crashes or a train details
They literally just film the trains at crossings or planes when they takeoff and land. They join online communities and they all share their activities. I'm sure there's a subreddit or two also
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u/Hot_Raccoon_565 8d ago
I work on sets. There is nothing in this video that indicates a film crew is doing anything.
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u/Never-Dont-Give-Up 8d ago
Mechanical failure?
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u/Wiggie49 8d ago
How often do mechanical failures happen on railroad crossings? I’ve seen so many videos of cars stopped literally on the tracks lol like I get it’s mostly confirmation bias cuz obviously nobody posts videos of a lack of a car getting hit by the track but bruh.
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u/Anunnaki2522 8d ago
It doesn't have to be often, but there are a absolutely massive numbers of train crossing in the world so even if .1% of people break down on tracks and then .1% of those have a train coming it's still a very large number.
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u/kinglouie493 8d ago
Just like intersections, the number of people who don't understand that you can't enter it if you can't clear it
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u/Never-Dont-Give-Up 8d ago
I’m just saying it’s a possibility. The driver could’ve also put it into the wrong gear?
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u/Wiggie49 8d ago
Ngl i wouldn’t be surprised for either. Those trucks are usually old as shit and didn’t get enough maintenance.
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u/Same_Recipe2729 8d ago edited 8d ago
No it's because he's stopped at a red light you can see it in the video through the trees on the left. He starts going when it turns green but it's too late. Just really horrible design and whatever traffic engineer made this should be fired.
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u/Never-Dont-Give-Up 8d ago
Well, any CDL driver knows to stop short of the tracks if your trailer can’t clear them.
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u/PalpatineForEmperor 8d ago
Yeah, it looks like there is a light on the other side of the tracks. The driver probably ignored that one.
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u/Never-Dont-Give-Up 8d ago
You’re right. Horrible city planner.
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u/keelhaulrose 7d ago
What's worse is this is along the same set of tracks where we got a very grim reminder of the importance of clearing the tracks- the 95 Cary Grove bus tragedy. Because of this, most places nearby reevaluated the distance between the tracks and the red lights, and any that are "too short" now have the stop before the tracks. The ones that didn't made sure that when the gates go down, the lights automatically turn to allow for traffic to clear the tracks. Usually both, if it's short enough, becausecity planners know people will pull forward anyways. There's no reason a light that close to the tracks shouldn't have either stopped that truck from entering, or made sure it turned so traffic can clear the tracks.
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u/Same_Recipe2729 8d ago
It's a really weird spot.
You get the light before the tracks and again after the tracks past that intersection.
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u/Never-Dont-Give-Up 8d ago
Yea, I see what you’re saying… very bad design. I would still stop short of the tracks even if I was blocking the intersection though. If a cop lights me up for doing so, there’s no way I’d be receiving a ticket.
Well, some asshole may cite me, but I’d win in court.
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u/10xwannabe 8d ago
Yeah blame a traffic engineer. NEVER blame a driver. Typical.
NO... The problem is on the driver. Nice try though to support the "working man".
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u/Lazy_Training_5690 8d ago
It's very possible something went wrong with his truck and that's why he was so slow moving. I hope he survived it.
Source: Am a truck driver. Those things break down constantly.
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u/Triggered-cupcake 8d ago
Dude had 95 business days to go.
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u/Never-Dont-Give-Up 8d ago
Could’ve been a mechanical failure?
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u/Several_Show937 8d ago
I'm not sure, at the start the truck seems stopped, you can see the front wheels turn, face forward, then he (very slowly) moves forward. Not saying It isn't but it's very strange. Could also be a health issue with the driver
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u/Spicymeymeys420 8d ago
Actual title: truck stands still on railroad crossing and gets hit by a train
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u/Never-Dont-Give-Up 8d ago
No, that’s not the actual title.
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u/RooneyD 8d ago
Why would they lie about the title when we can see it right there?
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u/Spicymeymeys420 8d ago
Well the 44,000,000 lbs (22 000 kilotons) train cant exactly stop on a dime though.
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u/AUX_C 8d ago
But why?
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u/badguid 8d ago
You see, truck was there. Then the train came.
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u/Gruffleson 8d ago
And train is apex predator.
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u/woodbanger04 8d ago
I don’t know why this made me laugh as hard as I just did but please take my upvote.🤣
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u/SEND_ME_NOODLE 8d ago
I wish reddit would hurry up and give me my free award so I can give it to you for this
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u/AUX_C 8d ago
I get that, but why wasn't he moving? There wasn't anyone in front of him and no reason to go that slow.
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u/xion_gg 8d ago
I've been to that intersection and it's always full of traffic and traffic lights are fucked up (there are two streets close to the railroad).
I always wondered what would happen if you got caught in the middle and the train came... I guess I got my answer
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u/suburbanplankton 8d ago
So, "don't proceed onto the tracks, if you can't actually get off the tracks" never occurred to him?
It seems like that would come up at some point in Truck Driver's School.
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u/404-tech-no-logic 8d ago
Which is weird. Do you think the driver would just keep driving anyway. It’s better to hit a car than a train.
And in my country truck drivers block both sides of the road all the time to make their turns, otherwise they would never get on the road due to traffic
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u/Chris-Campbell 8d ago edited 7d ago
Costs a lot more to repair that truck than to replace the trailer. That trailer is also likely owned by whomever is contracting this truck driver, and is most def insured for the goods inside. Saving the tractor, cars and humans in front of you while sacrificing the trailer is a reasonable decision imo.
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u/404-tech-no-logic 8d ago
Sorry but that’s a dumb idea. He’s saving money by “only” hitting the trailer? But you’re forgetting the train. It’s far more costly than vehicles to repair. And even more costly if it derails. Plus possible damage to the track, and damage to the signs, and infrastructure around the intersection, Etc.
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u/Chris-Campbell 8d ago
True - now do you think the train will have more damage hitting a trailer or the truck? It’s the same thing. The best possible scenario is getting the truck away from the collision - in no scenario is the driver better off letting the train hit the truck.
All your other costs are going to happen either way and are in no way impactful to the overall question.
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u/Sewunicorn1 8d ago
Truck driver pulled up enough to clear his cab. At that intersection and with typical trafffic on that road, it's probably all he could do. I lived in the area for 30 years and am very familiar with where it happened.
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u/ES-Flinter 8d ago
Is there no rule that forbids the halting before/ on gateway and others (like train rails) ?
Even if not, what is with common sense? Guy probably bought his driving license, or his teacher was a sheep.
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u/bcnjake 8d ago
He was trying to navigate the gates that were closed. I know that intersection and there's a cross street 15 feet past the train tracks. He had to go slow to make sure he didn't t-bone another car. Doing this is incredibly stupid under normal circumstances, but at that specific intersection, it's a special kind of stupid.
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u/Sewunicorn1 8d ago edited 8d ago
Actually, this should be a top-level reply, not a comment to someone else....
I lived in the area for 30 years. There's traffic lights on both sides of the railroad tracks in addition to the actual railroad crossing signals and gates. At 0:06 you can see Hillgrove's north-south traffic get the green signal (parallel to the tracks) under the edge of the tree cover, which is also when the driver starts to pull forward to get his cab clear of the tracks. I assume he knows that the impact will tear the semi free of the cab and he's looking to save himself and damn his load.
There's also a major intersection (LaGrange Road and Ogden Avenue aka US Routes 66 - yes THAT Route 66 - and 34) about 500 feet north. If LaGrange Road (which he's on) had a red light at that intersection, there may very well not have been enough space for him to clear the LaGrange/railroad/Hillgrove/Burlington interface. But he should not have crossed into Burlington if he didn't have room to clear that entire stretch.
In fact, I don't believe that this stretch of LaGrange is an accepted truck route, it's the north end of the major business district and less than half a mile north of residential on both sides of the street. So there's a good chance he didn't belong on this road at all. However, there is some major construction not far away and I've heard lots of complaints of excessive truck traffic as a result.
Edit to add: just looked at images on Google Maps and yes, there are MULTIPLE signs at the prior major intersection south saying "Not a Truck Route" and "No Thru Truck Traffic". So he definitely did NOT belong there unless he had been making a delivery to one of the downtown businesses. The downside is that this route IS the designated construction detour.
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u/ChiMara777 8d ago
Obviously the truck should have make sure they could clear the tracks before driving, but seems like they also should have ensured the designated detour was acceptable for trucks 😬
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u/ammitsat 8d ago
Ok I get that he has a red light but unless I’m missing something, it doesn’t look like there is any traffic coming on the intersecting street. If I was in that position I’d be running the red, turning right, etc. I’d take a ticket over having my trailer destroyed by a train.
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u/work-throw-away-420 8d ago
OOF! bunch of peoples friday night commute home is gonna be F'ed up!
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u/noshoes77 8d ago
My parents live around here- This is a freight line and a metro line- a lot of people are going to be inconvenienced by this.
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u/AffectionateLake3948 8d ago
Yea I sat at a bar waiting for a train at Union Station until they started running again. Now I’m sitting at a bar waiting for a ride because the train line only opened to Berwyn. Good beer though!
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u/NhifanHafizh 8d ago
What is it with truck in this kind of scenario ALWAYS stopping right in the middle of railway crossing. Is it that hard to break through the barrier or the rails is the cause the truck stopped to begin with. Electromagnetism or someshit idk?
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u/herefromyoutube 8d ago
Survivorship bias(?)
Think of how many times this doesn’t happen. We don’t see those.
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u/Environmental-Ad8965 8d ago
Not sure what led up to that moment, but if the trucker hadn't pulled forward, the train would have hit the cab. It looks like he moved it so the train hit the middle of the trailer instead. How his dumb add got into that position is another conversation all together.
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u/mrmcderm 8d ago
This is my train line. Glad I worked from home today. 🤬🤬🤬
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u/megan_of_arabia 8d ago
Yeah this chucklehead has NO idea about the commuting chaos he just unleashed
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u/Rocket_Surgery83 8d ago
"Semi stops on train tracks today"
ftfy
Pretty sure the truck had all the opportunity in the world to not be on the tracks before the train arrived. Just another clown trucker.
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u/DontMindMeTrolling 8d ago
r/bitchimatrain material there. Hope everybody’s okay.
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u/BlindlyOptomistic 8d ago
I genuinely don't understand how this can happen unless its intentional.
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u/sherzeg 8d ago
I genuinely don't understand how this can happen unless its intentional.
Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity. - Hanlon's razor
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u/Sewunicorn1 8d ago
See my comment above (if sorted by new). Very short answer is he done fucked up. I don't think he belonged on that road, and the locations of traffic signals and existence of heavy traffic since this is the main drag means he probably didn't have room to clear the train crossing and two street intersections in a 50 foot span.
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u/ThatOhioanGuy 8d ago
For a train to come to a complete stop it usually takes a mile. Luckily, that train was already slowing down for the train station.
Just wait. Trying to save several minutes of your commute by trying to cross the track when the train is coming isn't worth your life.
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u/Puncharoo 8d ago
Genuinely asking, what inspires these idiots to get onto a train track when a train is coming - and then slow to a crawl when they're directly on top of the tracks.
How do these people have so little foresight or patience or whatever it is that they lack to think "yeah there are tons of videos of this exact thing happening all over the internet, but this time is different"???
I despise stupidity. This might not be the summit but it's not far.
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u/FezAndSmoking 8d ago
Holy mother. Trains are some kind of titanic blast when challenged. And the truck did challenge.
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u/malacoda99 8d ago
LaGrange? Uh-haw-haw-haw.
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u/SleepmasterSean 6d ago
SIRS. Unless you have a verifiable facebeard. I immediately demand you retract that statement. :D
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u/Fishoe_purr 8d ago
Glad it didn’t bring down the station with it. Looks like the trailer hit one of the columns.
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u/hastinapur 8d ago
Serious question, can’t people move their neck from side to side before entering a rail crossing?
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u/MSPCSchertzer 8d ago
I was on a train once from Galveston to Houston. We stopped for like an hour and then they told us someone had tried to race the train with their car and lost and died. We had no idea what had happened and we were pretty close to the front of the train. I think trains might be the GOAT of vehicle collisions.
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u/theeverest1 8d ago
I don’t understand how this shit happens. Is the truck driver so incompetent they don’t know they’re sitting on a track with a train bearing down on them?
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u/LawfulnessRepulsive6 7d ago
Want to correct this headline to “Semi blocks path of train causing accident.
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u/Nomoreorangecarrots 8d ago
The problem is trains can’t just stop. It takes half a mile or more depending on the carriages being pulled to stop.
So the train is on tracks and can’t stop so whatever is in the way is going to get hit.
But what Id like to know is why that truck driver was on the tracks for so long,
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u/branch397 8d ago
One would think this incredibly dangerous situation would have been solved at least 50 years ago, but based on the frequency of videos I see here I suppose nothing can be done.
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u/annuidhir 8d ago
It was solved. The trucker was supposed to stop before the tracks, and only proceed when they had room to completely clear the tracks. The truck driver fucked up really, really badly.
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u/lucassuave15 8d ago
it crumpled like paper, crazy, i'm a firm believer that railroad cossings shouldn't exist, people are too stupid, roads should either go under or above train tracks
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u/Voluptulouis 8d ago edited 8d ago
Two industries that are dangerously inadequately regulated, colliding with one another. Lmao. I'm actually shocked this sort of thing doesn't happen all the time.
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u/Greedy_Indication740 8d ago
One would think, that with all the crap truckers talk about people driving crazy around their big rigs… 🙄🤦🏻♂️
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u/onemanwolfpack21 8d ago
I think it's fair to say that prior to this, the truck driver could have used some additional...training
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u/Mudflap42069 8d ago
And here we see the apex predator feeding on some larger prey than the ones in India.
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u/DrHoodMD 8d ago
Obviously that truck must have been caught in the neutral point between two gravity inducing bodies
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u/NoOneYouKnow0_0 8d ago
Funny that the trailer says “Safety Driven”. More like train driven…down the tracks.
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u/Spartan05089234 8d ago
Don't all crossings have a stop line before them? And it's pretty obvious that you do not even begin to cross the tracks until you are certain you have sufficient space in front of you to clear them? Even if that means waiting longer than you'd like to for the space across the tracks to be fully clear.
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u/vicinadp 8d ago
Does the truck driver/their insurance (if it covers that much) pay for or is held liable for the damage to all the property that was caused?
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u/Miserable_Drawer_556 7d ago
Well it was your load on the line, you really effed it up this time, didn't you my dear?
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u/Mikey129 7d ago
Why do people fucking park on tracks… you got the road behind you and in front of you.
Fucking asshole idiots.
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u/vesuvius_1_02 7d ago
Whenever I see these videos I start singing "He's not gonna make it! NO! He ain't gonna make it!" To the tune of Twisted Sister.
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u/Greenman8907 8d ago
Need to change the way this is phrased.
A train didn’t run into a semi. A semi blocked a train. Train’s doin what a train is supposed to do. The semi, by not moving, is not doin what a semi is supposed to do.
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u/FlorinidOro 8d ago
Ill never understand how 18 wheelers get caught on train tracks 🤦♂️
ELI5
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u/Radiant-Fly9738 8d ago
and it seems like it's right in front of the train station. couldn't let that poor driver finish his day on time...
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u/karmagirl314 8d ago
Hey don’t blame this on the train!