As ever, some accidents involving semi trucks are more confusing than they are tragic. Not every collision is fatal, but all of them are serious for a variety of reasons. Still, it’s easy to see at least a certain amount of ironic humor in a recent accident between a semi and a much larger train near Louisville, Kentucky.
Apparently the truck was attempting to cross the rails, carrying a heavy load of sheet metal. The truck’s gears got stuck in the rail lines and the driver was unable to move the vehicle, so he exited it. A short time later, a train came up the tracks and cut the semi truck in half immediately.
Just as semi trucks are entire orders of magnitude larger than most other vehicles on the highway, trains outmass semi trucks considerably, and a semi has no chance in such a collision. According to local residents, these incidents such are fairly common, this being the third such accident in the last month.
Despite the fact that no one was hurt and there is a certain ironic humor in the situation, the collision still resulted in a significant delay for the train and a disruption of traffic in the area (given that the train had to stop following the impact and continued to block the intersection). This results in lost time and money, as well as property damage for both parties. While it is good that no one was harmed, there is a seriousness to the lost time and money that people must put up with as a result of having large vehicles on the roadway.
Fortunately, the train did not derail in the accident and soon was moved out of the way of the collision area, continuing on its way.
Due to the fact that the accident was caused by what amounts to mechanical failure, no one has been charged.
