30-Second Trucker Tip: Stalled on train tracks!

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Updated May 24, 2019
A train collides with a vehicle or pedestrian every three hours in the United States. Truck drivers are among the nearly 200 people killed at highway rail crossings every year.A train collides with a vehicle or pedestrian every three hours in the United States. Truck drivers are among the nearly 200 people killed at highway rail crossings every year.

A 100-car train traveling 50 mph takes a full mile to stop. So if you stall on the tracks and hear that train a-comin’, rolling round the bend, the odds are not with you.

Such a predicament could happen if your undercarriage is too low to cross the grade, or if you fail to anticipate that traffic could trap you on the tracks.

Check the September Overdrive for Carolyn Mason’s story, which has tips on how to navigate a rail crossing safely, as well as advice if you find your rig stuck on the tracks. For such cases, this video offers a few tips from that story: