Conflicts with Railroads

I retired from a state Dept of Transportation and now work with a private engineering firm. I'm interested in the relationships between the different modes (or methods) of traveling/transporting: Air, Rail, Truck, Bus, Car, Bicycle, Motorcycle, Walk. The engineering term for this is multimodalism. I have no experience driving a truck, except once for laughs I participated in a truck roadeo (I was a "manager") and knocked over more cones than I left standing in the three point turn event. I know that driving a truck is not easy and I have a great respect for those that do it and do it well. I especially like the "Smith System" of driver safety training. I chaired an Incident Review safety committee for several years and know from driver's accounts the challenges faced by truck drivers. Mostly our drivers drove single and tandem axle dump trucks, but we also had long haul lowboys for moving larger pieces of equipment.

In particular our firm now has a case where a train hit a truck that was stuck on a rail crossing. I'm interested to know how truckers decide when they think they can clear a crossing, and what options they have if they determine that they can not.

As a traffic engineer I work to make the transportation systems safer and more efficient for all users. Every mode has special needs and concerns, and I seek to build solutions that solve problems.

I appreciate your input, and thank you.