Due to UP traffic, Amtrak San Joaquins was redirected onto track 1, which is normally used by the Amtrak long distance trains. This caused confusion, and a cyclist crossed the tracks last second and nearly killed himself!
Quick disclaimer: the reason why it was a close call is because the driver applied the emergency brakes which saved the biker, without the drivers quick thinking the situation would have been much different. Not only that, I misspelt San Joaquin, as wrote *Juaquin* instead. About the yelling, I was not the one yelling in the video, I will not disclose the foamer/railfan who was yelling for privacy. I also said this was train 713 it was actually 718. Lastly, the driver actually said, "bike and a phone" not "bike and a rope" And thank you for watching too!
I'd say that the "foamer" had a reasonable reaction. I recognize that voice. It would be a very traumatic thing to see, especially if the outcome would've came out worse.
Not to mention, having to stop that fast could have injured any passengers standing up making their way to the door to get off the train. Makes perfect sense why they should refuse service to him that day in that context as well, even if he didn't get hit
@@AwkwardYet Yup, I've stopped a light NW2 diesel switcher before without bailing off the locomotive brake at 10mph while coming to a stop. Even with a tiny bit of brake applied initially, it's certainly not the most comfortable kind of stop. I learned quickly after that, haha
Agreed, not just for running in front of the train, but it's possible some passengers walking to the door to get off could have gotten hurt for having to stop that fast
Most people will never get it. There's been train fatalities since the 1800s It's like a virus in people's brain when they hear the oncoming train bells ringing, lights flashing and or gates are down... Completely avoiding all the trains warning signs. I think people need to watch the uncensored video about what happen to this lady name Mary T Wojtyla back in 1991 when she was struck by a Metra Commuter Train. Her lawyer was inches away from getting struck by the train. But she kept going without looking. Due to their impatience.
@@awepossum1059 You shouldn't even make an attempt to cross the train track or tracks period. It's like playing Russian Roulette with your life. Especially when there's oncoming train or trains coming your way. And even when you don't see any warning train signs and all you see is the track or tracks. You still need to look both ways. Just like crossing the streets or highways...Parents need to teach their kids about railway safety.
As a Conductor whose had a fatality, the average person doesn’t understand what the crew goes through when they strike someone. The biker is lucky that all what happened was denial of service.
@@Olivers_RailAdventures Hardly. A train track is closed off to pedestrians due to high speeds and inability to stop so if a pedestrian gets hit by a train it is always the pedestrians fault as they are somewhere they shouldn't be.
I mean Like most commenters, I personally don't understand why he couldn't have waited till the train stopped.....but Like even if he was SOOOO desperate to cross the tracks before the train, the train was going slow enough that he could have biked to the other end of the station and just try to put as much space between himself and the train to at least minimize the chance of angering the engineers. I grew up in a neighborhood surrounded by woods, with a Class 3 railroad going through them (no train went above 15 mph, for what it's worth). My friends and my brother & I practically spent half our middle school years walking along them....and honestly because we just loved trains so much, we had several spots along the tracks that we'd just hang out and talk for the day while we just waited for some trains to go by and watch (and NO, we never drank or otherwise misbehaved). The thing is not only just having practical common sense for safety & being aware of your surroundings at all times, but just treating the railroad and engineers with the same respect we treated our neighbors with. I mean we weren't afraid of being hit by a surprise fast train....15mph was the max speed for trains, they only use MP15 engines that are abnormally loud, and we always had signal lights in our view that we learned ALWAYS started flashing yellow when a train was about 5 minutes away, and immediately would get far to the side. Back then a lot of it was mostly mediated by fear of getting caught and in trouble, but now as an intensely empathetic 31 year old with a rather decent understanding of psychology and whatnot, I can't even begin to fathom just how traumatic it must be for an engineer to have a close call, or God forbid the worst case scenario. Or imagine the trauma these bystanders would experience if he DID get hit. TL;DR - I grew up near a railroad, and my friends and I were taught all about common sense railroad safety and awareness of one's surroundings as a kid; it's kept me alive for 31 years, and don't understand how someone making a close call decision can't think about the potentially traumatic impact the engineers experience during these events either.
@@pattym9182 Never mind the engineer or the bystanders -- why not just have a sense of self-preservation to begin with??? I mean, would he run in front of an 18-wheeler like that??? And if not, then why would a train be any different??? (FWIW, I live in the SF Gay Area not far from where this incident happened -- Milpitas, to be more precise -- and where I live, many bicyclists (not all by any means, but many) are total assholes with a major sense of entitlement, they literally think that they own the road and that everyone (including trucks, trains and emergency vehicles) must give them the right of way at all times!)
That's exactly what happened to a UP train hitting a woman. They said the car (and driver) was crushed. The locomotive??? Some paint and replace some hydraulic hoses.
One comment that I did not see here is that the reason an emergency stop for the train is so serious is that passengers on board the train can fall and get seriously injured. That is why it is a big deal even if the person on the bike was not hit. I have personally seen people fall on Metrolink and the Metro subway in Los Angeles, just during normal acceleration and deceleration, much less emergency braking.
I was catching the Amtrak Missouri River Runner in Kirkwood a few days ago, and a woman was crossing the tracks when the gates were down. The train was seconds away from hitting her.
It is her Fault because she could’ve been waiting for the Train , God , I don’t like when people do that! I wish that she could have been more careful about The Railroad Crossings being down when the Train was coming because she should have known that the Train was coming, but she didn’t! I am like, What the Hell? She Could Have Been Killed! 😬
I’ll even take a moment to consider the urgency of the biker felt since this was the last train of the day: Bakersfield is set up in such a way where you can cross at the street once the train stops. Biker would have more than enough time to cross considering the amount of people getting on the train. Hell, since the boarding gate changed, you may even be lucky enough to get a crew member to drop one of the stairs for you. I’m sure many of them would understand the confusion it causes. But all things considered, there really is no way to justify running in front of a moving train. Any moving vehicle if we’re being honest.
True, he could have waited for the train to stop and go around it, he had plenty of time because there were 2 freight trains blocking the mainline so he amtrak had to wait anyways
@@NorCaliRailroading2023 yeah considering all of that there as no way he'd miss the train and if the crossing was ahead of the loco the driver would have seen him coming and waited, no way to justify his actions
I also dont like how easily-crossable those tracks are. I only train around the midwest, but i never seen a station where the train tracks are parallel to the ground where the passengers are standing off of. They really made it too easy for some idiot with a bike to wanna cross it last-minute. Im not even approving the person's actions, im just pointing-out how easy it is to cross the other side of the tracks
That’s what I was thinking. No reason for this other than just plain stupidity. Lack of any sense in his brain. The trains right there! Wait for it to stop and I’m sure you can figure a way to get on.
Emergency brake was applied, 0:37 is the air dumping out of the system and you can see the emergency red beacon on the NPCU flashing which only flashes when the emergency brake is applied. (0:44)
Engineer was on alert. I mean it's bad enough this dude crossed right in front of the train, but he actually SLOWED down when he crossed the track. You better be sprinting
Funny enough I teached a lot of people I know with common sense. In this occasion I would say " like you couldn't wait"? "Better to be safe then sorry by being late by a few minutes"
You don’t watch much train videos! Railfan channel recorded a man in a motorized wheelchair with a leashed dog doing the same thing!! I believe near Cincinnati. UK video showed a woman pushing a baby buggy stepping in front of an approaching train crossing with seconds to spare!
@@NorCaliRailroading2023 Maybe people actually getting a harsh consequence may start cutting down on the ignorance. A big inconvenience to him for his ignorance. World has gotten crazy stupid. 😔
I saw a documentary where a train engineer said, “If you do this as a career, sooner or later, you’re going to kill someone trying to beat the train. It’s not a question of ‘if’ but a question of ‘when’.”
So much of a summary of American intercity rail here. Platform crossing over the rails, last train of the day arriving in broad daylight, scheduling getting messed up because of UP freight, and of course someone being careless around trains. I'm glad at least the newer tech prevented a tragedy.
I agree with you but just a heads up, they cant run any trains later than 6 pm since the journey takes 6 hours so any train later than that would be over night
The emergency brakes have at least a 1 minute cooldown before they can be released; and will need to be called in before the train can continue, if Amtrak has that policy.
Anyone with even a basic idea of math and (real applied) science can straight away understand there's an enormous amount of force necessary to bring the train to a stop, and how that all translates into heat. Right, exactly as you say. I would suspect that it might be longer, but I don't know about trains so much to know that deeply.
I was on an Amtrak from California to Oregon when it cut a pickup truck in half. Fortunately, the driver suffered only minor injuries. It was crazy how we didn't feel any impact at all. We just started slowing down and I looked out the window and saw half a truck with a guy sitting in the driver's seat with both hands still on the wheel.
Me and the fam were on the California Zephyr Amtrak and we hit a MASSIVE tree trunk somewhere in Colorado. I only know because I saw it splinter and fly off out my window. Didnt feel a thing.
@@NorCaliRailroading2023 Now IF.......the biker would have waited, he would have boarded correct!? What's even the waiting time of boarding at that station? there is a ramp at the front of the platform to go around the engine correct? 🚅🚂
WOW! What an idiot🙄 What is in his right hand, is he filming himself running in front of the train? I love how that Engineer banned him from his train. Good for him! No Idiots Allowed!
@@RailfanofChicagoandMorehell no, why would they do that for him, when he caused confusion and delay for the passengers, station agent, and the conductor
@@RailfanofChicagoandMoreper Amtrak policy, “Amtrak may refuse to carry any passenger ‘who refuse to comply with safety or security rules or with instructions of Amtrak personnel’ and ‘Who pose a health, safety or security hazard to other passengers or employees’” “Amtrak employees or other authorized carrier representatives may such a passenger from the train at any inhabited place, as necessary under the circumstances, for any of the above reasons” No refund is required to be issued As well, since the San Joaquin is not reserved, his ticket (unless seized and/or canceled by Amtrak) is still valid for one year. Nothing is stopping him from taking the next train at no additional cost.
This couldn't have happened in the UK, where all stations have platforms. I'm amazed to see all those people standing at track level waiting to get on a train. 😮
Even the most dilapidated mainline rail stations in malaysia have platforms, i can't fathom not being able to simply raise the platform higher, making it slanted on each end for wheelchairs and overall easier acccess.
People also need to realize that the engineer dumped the train at 0:37. Had he not plugged the train then he would’ve been hit bc it wouldn’t be stopping nearly as quickly
@@lalakerspro but more difficult to bord or debord the train. It has been decades since I saw the last rather flat platform, but it wasn't at ground level like this one. Would make more sense to have a pedestrian crossing, underpass or bridge
There is a bridge but it goes to the shopping complex instead. The flat track isnt used that often anyway. People just need to have common sense and not walk across a track when the train is coming@@EnjoyFirefighting
Yea, they can definitely install a pedestrian crossing at that track at each end, but this is the only station on the line that people cross tracks like this, the rest have a crossing, underpass, or are single tracked@@EnjoyFirefighting
Biker things he'll make it. It'll be close but he'll make it. He honestly has no idea how batshit scared the crew is because of his actions. They don't know if he's going to make it, and now their heart is in their throat.
@@utahrailfan1946 They should make it on both sides to prevent this motive from occurring again. Thanks for the information. The fool had a bike too, and he could’ve just went around the train now that I think of it once it stopped.
@@42luke93 There's no realistic way to do that. They could add a third passenger track, for the other side of the platform he's standing on, but that would still cut across this area. Expanding the current platform to fill the gap is far from realistic.
OMG, I myself saw almost the exact same thing happen in almost the exact same place -- I was taking the Coast Starlight back from Salem last fall, and we were crawling along between Emeryville and Jack London Square when suddenly we had an emergency stop because some idiot drove across the tracks right in front of us! (Fortunately we stopped in time and didn't hit him, so we weren't badly delayed!) In downtown Oakland, this must be happening ALL the time!
I thought that was more when they were ripped up because they cannot compete with car addicts and cyclists get flung a tiny shard of a bone as we all lose out on good infrastructure in the long run!
@@5688gamble That is in theory; in practice, political strings pulled result in closure, and potential transit corridors are converted into linear parks much to the delight of the NIMBYs ; and the highway lobby.
I recently saw what an oncoming train does to cows, deers and horses that got on the track hence why I got recommended this video and it would definitely not been a pretty sight if it werent for the engineer pulling the emergency brake last second.
This station design provides no significant line of demarcation, barrier, or separation between passengers and the train. No handrails or barricades, no pedestrian overpass, no difference in elevation or raised platform, nothing but a damn yellow line. Apparently, the architect failed to take into account the abject stupidity of people, when they are distracted or in a rush. Yes, the person with the bike was, in fact, a dumbass. What was the designer's excuse?
He applied the emergency brake before that biker crossed the tracks he is so alert my dream job is driving Amtrak and I will stay alert like this engineer was
Completely deserved. Anyone who thinks otherwise are the same people blaming passenger travel for selfish driver deaths who not only think they can beat a train when theyre legally not supposed to, but have no care for the people on the train itself and what a derailment can cause.
I think a better solution would be to bring him on board and have an honest gentlemen discussion. I am not implying negativity, and my words are face value. It seems like the best win-win there could be.
@ MrCrispRP Well if he would have gone on the Train, than the Train Conductor would have said to him “ Hey you shouldn’t have done that” and he could get a warning for doing that!!
Egotists like this dbag will only learn from being inconvenienced. They will never absorb any criticism, from conductor or whoever else, as they probably raised by shite parents who fed into their self-centered delusions.
As George Carlin would say, this isn't a near miss, it's a near hit. Getting run over by a train is a near miss. You'd say, "Wow, it nearly missed him. "Yes, but not quite."
Don't worry, this is just a joke (a funny one at that) That passenger should get ID'd and banned from all trains until either they are an adult or in 5 years, whichever is later.
When I was a missionary in a very rural area of Texas, there were some railroad crossings that merely had a RR Crossing side, and nothing else. No lights, no gates, not even the train blowing a horn. I learned my lesson to pay attention when I was driving across that crossing at night, and saw my companion was brightly illuminated. Looked the other way, saw the front end of the train. Seemed to be only a few feet away. We made it across, but only through sheer luck. Another time (much later in life) I was teaching my stepdaughter how to drive. We were almost done for the day, and we were approaching a traffic light. About twenty or thirty feet prior to the traffic light was a set of railroad tracks. The cars ahead of us came to a halt, and it just didn't occur to me that my stepdaughter wouldn't understand or have the situational awareness to realize that in this sort of situation, you don't stop ON the tracks at a red light. By the time I realized what she was doing, we were already on the tracks. Light still red. And then the gates came down. I think at the time I was not as calm as necessary, but I told her to honk so that ther person in front of her would move forward so she could get off the tracks. Pretty sure she was traumatized for life.
Very interesting stories! About the red light situation, many streetlights that are 20-30 feet in front of tracks now turn green automatically when gates go down so situations like what happened to you and your daughter don’t happen
@@NorCaliRailroading2023 This would have been in 2003 or 2004 I think. I think the lights did turn green before it became critical, but it never occurred to me that it was a design of the system. Certainly was a difficult moment for mother and daughter.
Well this is like the most stupidest thing ever. If u are so strict with laws then at least build an overhead pedestrian bridge for the late arrivers and a fence to guard either side of the tracks. This is probably the most irresponsibly built and dangerous train halt in the entire world.
Is no one going to talk about the rare F40PH in the latest Amtrak colors? I didn’t even know Amtrak had any left, other than the cascades possibly. Let alone painted in the latest Amtrak colors.
That's actually a "Cabbage Car" or combination cab control and baggage car, converted from a retired F40PH. Spotting features would be the baggage door on the sides as well as the 5 digit road number (Amtrak adds a "90" before the old road number for cabbage cars), as well as the total lack of engine noise.
0:38 For this minimum mandatory punishment should be: 1 year in jail (no less) and coverage of COMPLETE cost of the stoppage of the train, delay time, material wear.. all of it. Then they (he) will learn.
Blimey! That's fast for a railway line without platforms. I know trams run fast in the street but you don't expect to see a train doing it on a level surface. Props to the driver from an ex main line passenger train driver 👏👏👏
That rider didn't consider how late the train would be if it splattered him all over the tracks. How inconsiderate for the other riders, they would have definitely been late to wherever they were going.
Happened to me when I was riding the Coast Starlight to Salem last fall -- it was FOUR HOURS late all because it ran over some stupid hobo near San Luis Obispo who was walking on the tracks and not looking!
Why is US trains operate without any fenses? In Asia, we have glass doors prevent riders from fallen on the track. US is just not care about its people in general.
Props to the engineer for not allowing the dude to board the train. Even everyone was calling out his bonehead move. Should've got to the train station a little earlier.
You could tell when the person came into frame that they weren’t stopping. Plus they slowed down when they got on the track. They had no understanding for train safety. People do these things all the time and it was smart for conductor to get on the speaker or whomever and say “you are not getting on”. There should also be a criminal charge. It’s important for them to show that you do something beyond stupid and there are repercussions. Ultimately it’s to protect them to make sure they don’t ever do it again.
@@NorCaliRailroading2023 How much clearer could it have been? Everyone else waiting to board was at that platform. Besides, has he never heard of "Stop, look and listen"? He did none of those; it doesn't matter what track the train was or was not on.
There were like 30 other people waiting on Track 1, so clearly this isn't an Amtrak problem about "making it more clear that trains go to Track 1" @@NorCaliRailroading2023
The cyclist had the same "I can make it" attitude that many dangerous drivers have. Their goal is to get to a spot before the other traffic can get there, not taking into account how their actions force others to react. Very selfish.
I will admit i have crossed in front of a (stationary) train before (that wasn’t even at a platform) It was at a road crossing where the warning system had just shut off after a train had passed in the other direction (the crossing wasn’t malfunctioning, it was designed to do that, the crossing equipment has control of the signals just before it, and only lets one train pass in each activation cycle) And i have also seen someone dart across one of those crossings after the road lights sequence had started (those trains have an unusual feature where there is a double seat directly next to the drivers cab, so passengers can see out the front), the train hadn’t yet departed from the platform when it happened, but the driver gave a blast of the horn to tell them off)
There is a reason why Indian Railways worked so hard to eliminate all unmanned level crossings. Next step they are taking is automatic doors on all suburban trains in Mumbai. These two steps alone will cut down deaths on Indian Railways by half. The remaining deaths will continue to be mostly due to the kind of accident that was about to happen in this video.
i love trains and mass transit so much and i am very anti car and i know i should be friends with the cyclist. but, i’ve never met a cyclist that isn’t a self centered asshole.
