Scratch One More Mailbox

I was discussing grade crossing accidents with an Amtrak engineer a few years back and he gave me a graphic example of what it’s like when a train hits a car. He said it would be like your family car running over a mailbox. Get the picture?

I’ve written before about the morons who are so impatient they drive around the barriers at railroad crossings. You want to grab them, shake them and scream at them: “What the hell were you thinking?”

Most of the time, of course, you can’t ... because they’re dead.

This used to be a late model Mercedes-Benz. It was owned by a man in San Juan Capistrano, California, who drove it around a barricade and – Oops! – into the path of an Amtrak train. Amazingly, the guy ended up in the hospital with only minor injuries.

Talk about dumb luck!