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<P>All</P>
<P>I wanted to make all of you aware of an accident I witnessed at the Queensbury railroad crossing about 1 year ago. </P>
<P>Around 6:30 am, a man was heading east on Queensbury Rd and turned left onto the tracks rather than Lafayette. I have witnessed similar incidents at this crossing mutiple times after dark. There was a train stopped at the Riverdale train station full of passengers. A freight train was heading north toward College Park. The northbound train was about 1/4 mile south of the Queensbury crossing when I saw this man attempting to get his Camaro off the railroad tracks. I realized the train was not going to stop and coaxed him away from his car. The northbound train hit the Camaro at about 15 mph and drove the car between it and the passenger train stopped at the Riverdale train station. The Camaro burst into flames with a fireball rising at least 40 feet above the tops of the trains (no exageration). The northbound train eventually stopped. I immediately ran over and started helping (screaming my head off) people out of the train. Eventually one of the passengers joined me in helping people exit the train. The fireball was not 20 ft. from where I was standing on the other side of the train. No one in the train could see the flames because the Camaro was lodged near the coupling between the passenger cars. Many of the passengers were annoyed with me because I was yelling at them to get off the train. Once they exited the train they felt differently. Fortunately, no one got hurt. All that was left of the Camaro was a blackened cube about 4 feet on each side. </P>
<P>Please keep this story in mind if you ever decide to run the gates. </P>
<P>Bruce </P>
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<BLOCKQUOTE style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 0px; BORDER-LEFT: #0000ff 2px solid">-----Original Message----- <BR>From: Dwight Holmes <DWIGHTRHOLMES@GMAIL.COM><BR>Sent: Apr 19, 2007 9:43 AM <BR>To: TownTalk <TOWNTALK@RIVERDALE-PARK.ORG><BR>Subject: [RP TownTalk] wow -- youtube video captures *very* near miss at our RxR crossing <BR><BR>Yesterday, while looking for David Hiles' new yahoo gropu (Riverdaleparkies) i discovered there's a rail buff's yahoo group called <SPAN class=ygrp-grdescr>Riverdalerailfans (</SPAN><SPAN class=ygrp-grdescr> Riverdale Railfans Association)...<BR><BR>One of the list members has posted this video clip on youtube of a very near miss at our RxR crossing last month:<BR></SPAN><SPAN class=ygrp-grdescr><BR></SPAN><A href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmra0WpCIDA" target=_blank>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmra0WpCIDA</A><BR><BR><SPAN class=ygrp-grdescr>Seeing this sure makes you appreciate why the train engineers might be a little horn-happy! I'm guessing they see this kind of nightmare-in-the-making unfolding right before their eyes way too often. And it makes me appreciate our town officials who have been pushing to get an upgrade to the crossing gates -- Presumably, when that actually happens, this particular kind of stupid act will no longer be impossible. <BR><BR></SPAN><A href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmra0WpCIDA" target=_blank>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmra0WpCIDA</A><BR clear=all><BR>-- <BR>"We can have concentrated wealth in the hands of a few or we can have democracy. But we cannot have both." <BR> --Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis (1916-39)<BR>~~<BR>Will the Washington Gnats break the Mets' Lousy record?:<BR><A href="http://tinyurl.com/2m6f43" target=_blank>http://tinyurl.com/2m6f43</A> </BLOCKQUOTE></DIV></BODY><PRE>
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