Comments on: BNSF Caught In Spy vs. Spy With Fatal Accident Evidence

By: skyshine

skyshine — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 00:29:57 +0000

I cannot believe how cold some of you people are, Have a little compassion for the families that lost their children in this wreck, do you really think that they are looking to get rich by this incident? you dumb asses, these families would give it all back to have their children back, SHAME ON YOU.And if you read the evidence the crossing bars were not working properly, had they had been these kids would be alive today.and why would the railroad immediately hide evidence? use your heads and read it all before blaming a bunch of kids, for the railroads wrong doing

By: DPS

DPS — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 04:21:23 +0000

Jake-you make some very good points. As a driver I believe we should all be more aware of our surroundings when driving however, I also know that when I have a green light at an intersection I expect the red light for on coming traffic. Whether I am watching for cars coming another direction or not, if the on coming traffic light is also green there is a problem with the lights and if there is a death involved BECAUSE of that, then there should be some legal proceedings following that. Someone should be held accountable when our safety is put in jepordy.
With the intersection at the Ferry st. crossing, as a driver i EXPECT the arms to work and to let me know when a train is coming and if you had seen all the evidence at the trial you would believe also that the arms did NOT come down to warn these kids of an oncoming train. Imagine being a 17-20 yr old, 4 kids in the car, talking, laughing radio going, having a good time…kids are not taught to stop and look when it is an armed intersection, they are taught to trust the arms are working.So, if we are going to blame anyone (other than the RR for having non-working equipment)lets blame the drivers ed class that should be teaching our kids how to behave at this type of intersection. I too have always enjoyed observing trains, but I can tell you that any large corp. is going to try to get out of any wrong doing if they can afford to do so. Do a search on BNSF and look at some of the things they have done in the past and present, they are far from angelic.

Todd – good going!

As for those that think there was a 6+week trial and the jury found in favor of the families out of pity, you are sadly mistaken. In the beginning they ask if the jury would award $$ in a wrongful death and the funny thing is that each and every one of them said NO, they saw only a portion of what took place in the 5 yrs from the time of the accident, if they saw all of it some RR people would be in jail right now.

By: Todd Arnold

Todd Arnold — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 17:26:23 +0000

To Mike, and all the others who have no idea what the hell they are talking about:

I have lived within spitting distance of that intersection where they died for 47 years. There have been numerous accidents there in the past, and several people killed.

THE WARNING GATES MALFUNCTION ON A REGULAR BASIS. I have been there in the middle of the night when the gates come down for no reason- no trains, no one working on them. Now they have added rail service to this line, which was already one of the busiest routes in the state.

The railroad advertised for witnesses and PAID them to come forward and testify against these kids. Look it up, first time it was allowed in this country. Something is wrong here.

Todd Arnold

By: Jake

Jake — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 10:46:32 +0000

Another thing I forgot to mention about the crossing is that in the days after the crash, the makeshift memorial which was placed at the scene became so cumbersome that it had to be taken down by authorities. There were so many pictures, flowers, cards, etc attached to the crossing gate, that it was a distraction and undermined the crossing arm because it nearly disappeared under the memorial. I don’t know why it has become popular to place accident scene memorials everywhere, but sometimes they get to be burdensome to the area in which they are placed. Some states do not allow these memorials for vehicle related accidents because of the safety issue, rather the state will place an appropriate marker, one that is not a major distraction. It would be nice to see Minnesota adopt such a policy.

It is funny to think that someone has to be hurt before something becomes an issue, that we as a society choose not to be proactive when it is inconvenient. This particular crossing wasn’t anymore dangerous than the next until someone was hurt; and in all reality, the crossing I live a mile away from has more limited visibility than this crossing did at the time of the crash. Hwy 47 is elevated above the salvage yard on the northwest corner of the picture, and the road declines abruptly on the south side. I think the speed limit in the area is 30 mph, what you do not see in the picture is that just to the north, is a sharp bend where the road actually faces near west and to the south there are businesses and intersections with lights, downtown Anoka begins just a couple of blocks south of the picture. North of the picture, after MN Hwy 47 turns west it again turns north (To go around the Anoka County fair grounds) and most of the road for another mile north has few intersections, there isn’t another light until about a mile north. It is easy to see how a 20 year old with three friends in his vehicle had his mind on other things than the train. How often do we really look for cars at intersections unless the light is red, how easy was it for this kid to miss the train because the signal wasn’t flashing, assuming it failed. Most of us usually aren’t paying that much attention at regular road intersections when the light is green for us, but should a car run their red light, man are we shocked that we were hit and then we turn to anger as we look for someone to blame. Could we not have paid attention and scanned for cars at the intersection despite our right of way? How many more accidents would be avoided if we took responsibility for our safety? We wouldn’t have a need for courts or prisons if everyone took responsibility for their own actions…a kid yielding at an intersection, the railroad making sure all of their equipment is in tip-top shape.

By: Jake

Jake — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 10:06:55 +0000

This was a tragic event that was somewhat personal to me because I traveled Ferry Street daily to commute to work. During the time period preceeding the crash, twice I witnessed local law enforcement directing traffic through the crossing because of a crossing gate failure. What is not detectable in the picture is the elevation change at the crossing; the rails are level from East to West, but slightly banked and Ferry St. is rising as you head north. This actually is a benefit to both directions of travel as you can see coming trains from under the crossing arms. Trains are very audible at this crossing and they did and still do sound their horns at this crossing. The only sight disadvantage is to the siding of the tracks just east of the intersection, as sometimes there are stopped trains or sitting railcars which can obscure your vision, but any motorist who makes an effort to listen for a coming train can and should hear it. My personal opinion is that whether the driver purposely attempted to go around crossing gates or that the gates failed, had he bothered to listen and look for a train, he would have detected one. Although I believe the responsibility of the accident falls to the driver, there were multiple victims in this circumstance, four of whom lost their lives, and countless friends and family members who lost loved ones, not to mention the engineer of the train. We all were young drivers once, and we should all know that people make mistakes whether they fail to yield to caution or purposely display a disregard for safety, sometimes those mistakes can be fatal. It really doesn’t matter whose fault any accident is when it comes to life or death, we should learn from this that our safety is our own responsibility. I am a rail fan and take note of anything related to trains, and I have witnessed many other gate failures on the same set of tracks further down the line, but usually I have seen the railroad workers attending to most of them. There isn’t a set of tracks that I cross without making an attempt to detect a train, even if that means having to completely stop to look, it’s my life and I’m not going to trust someone else with it.

By: ron

ron — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 06:35:44 +0000

Bridgette was my cheerful and delightful loving niece, and I dont care what your thoughts are about who was at fault, but people should be more respectful and considerate to the victims and their families when they make their comments, god bless you all and be careful when crossing these faulty train crossings,they are not as safe as they should be.

By: RGoodell

RGoodell — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 03:45:59 +0000

GM: Agree 100%

By: GM

GM — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 15:46:07 +0000

If YOU are on the tracks…and get hit…it is YOUR fault. Problem is…nobody is accountable these days. I have been riding trains for 30 years. Yesterday we almost hit a car load of people, crossing around the gates. We see it multiple times EVERY trip. If you get killed or hurt…shame on you, but YOU did it to yourself. (I do feel terribly sorry for the families–but basically, the driver of the car killed them.

By: Stacie

Stacie — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 01:27:16 +0000

I only have a couple comment 1.NO MATTER WHAT YOU SHOULD ALWAYS LOOK AT A CROSSING TO MAKE SURE THAT THERE IS NO TRAIN COMING BOTTEM LINE. 2. EVEN IF THE GATES ARE NOT WORING OR WORKING !!!!!!! And yes for any one thats wnats to no I come from a RR family… those kids did not stop and look for a train and now there dead well thats what happens so mike i could not agree with you more…

By: Melissa

Melissa — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 20:12:03 +0000

Gee, Mike (with a capital “M”), you’re about an inconsiderate piece of work, aren’t you? If I didn’t know any better, I would have thought that you worked for the railroad company.

Well, I’ve got news for you, not everybody that is killed by trains are at fault, or are “stupid” people, as you would say. Unless you were in the court room listening to all of the evidence, I suggest you leave you “stupid” comments to yourself. Oh, and another thing, you heartless S.O.B., what if it had been one of your family members, or God forbid, one of your children, I bet you wouldn’t say, “Stupidity should hurt!” Know the facts and know what you are talking about before you say something so ignorant.