A railroad grade crossing is exactly that. A road crossing an operating railroad track and there are only electrically operating gates that supposed to stop traffic once these gates are down. Unfortunately, there are ways to go around these gates by people who are impatient for waiting for the trains to pass. These acts mostly result in fatalities.
Such a fatality happened in 1982 when a car filled with ten teenagers did not want to wait for the train to pass. Of the ten nine died in the ensuing crash, one survived. This happened in Mineola, Long Island at a Long Island Railroad grade crossing. This was not the first accident at this location but it was the worst. For many years they tried to change this unsafe location into a grade separated crossing which meant to raise the tracks over the road but there was never any money available for this work.
Then 1982 happened. It seems that the son of a powerful NY politician was amongst the casualties and suddenly the money was there. As a side note, my company and I were involved with the engineering design work with this project.
Why am I writing this and what is the connection between this and the latest, Nashville shooting tragedy? Here is the moral of the story.
The United States Congress will not make any laws in regard to firearms or any kind of weapons until such a tragedy will hit home. As soon as a family member of a senator or a representative gets involved they will change their attitude. This just proves that the interest of the American people is far for them.
I always said and I maintain it that our representatives only care about their own interests, they are just packaging it so it would look like it is for the good of the people.
1982 9 teenagers
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