Quiet Zones, Good Or Bad?
In many towns across the United States of America, railroads intersect with highways. Some of these crossings have what are known as a quiet zones, where there are 500 to 1000 yards where a locomotive engineer can’t sound the horn. At first this was a great idea; people were sleeping soundly without being woken up by the trains. That is basically all quiet zones do. The people and railroader were happy for a while. People were sleeping soundly and the railroad was not being prosecuted, but there quickly became tragedies and deaths. In North Dakota a 69-year-old man was struck by a train while waiting for another to pass. He was standing on the tracks Since this was a quiet zone he had no way of knowing a 6,000,000 pound train was about to hit him. He was pronounced dead on scene (DOS). Because the engineer couldn't sound the horn he killed that man, even if the engineer did see him it would have been too late "Union Pacific Trains …show more content…
Four veterans lost their lives in this tragedy. It could have been avoided if the engineer blew his horn, but he couldn’t. These are not the only cases over railroad tragedies, but they are a few that happened in quiet zones. The problem is the law. if the engineer blows the horn he could lose his job.("Pottroff Law Office, P.A.") The problem lies in the railroad, if someone is on the tracks and can't hear or see the train coming the driver should be able to blow the horn. losing an hour of sleep is better than losing hours. Think About
In many towns across the United States of America, railroads intersect with highways. Some of these crossings have what are known as a quiet zones, where there are 500 to 1000 yards where a locomotive engineer can’t sound the horn. At first this was a great idea; people were sleeping soundly without being woken up by the trains. That is basically all quiet zones do. The people and railroader were happy for a while. People were sleeping soundly and the railroad was not being prosecuted, but there quickly became tragedies and deaths. In North Dakota a 69-year-old man was struck by a train while waiting for another to pass. He was standing on the tracks Since this was a quiet zone he had no way of knowing a 6,000,000 pound train was about to hit him. He was pronounced dead on scene (DOS). Because the engineer couldn't sound the horn he killed that man, even if the engineer did see him it would have been too late "Union Pacific Trains …show more content…
Four veterans lost their lives in this tragedy. It could have been avoided if the engineer blew his horn, but he couldn’t. These are not the only cases over railroad tragedies, but they are a few that happened in quiet zones. The problem is the law. if the engineer blows the horn he could lose his job.("Pottroff Law Office, P.A.") The problem lies in the railroad, if someone is on the tracks and can't hear or see the train coming the driver should be able to blow the horn. losing an hour of sleep is better than losing hours. Think About