April 10, 2025 • 39 mins
An MBTA commuter rail train collided with a tractor trailer in Canton, MA. Luckily, the truck driver is okay. It appears the truck got stuck behind the railroad crossing gate on one side of the road and on the track. Instead of driving through the other gate on the opposite side of the tracks, the driver decided to vacate the vehicle, abandoning it on the tracks. What would you do in this situation if your vehicle were stuck between barriers on a railroad track? Would you do the same thing as the driver and abandon the vehicle, drive through the opposing gate or something else?
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's Night Side with Dan Ray on WBZ Koston's video.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
A tough night for the Bruins. They were ahead when nothing.
Now they're behind three to one, sort of like the season.
They started off pretty well and ever since January first
has been not been great. Well, anyway, it wasn't great
yesterday in Canton. I don't know how many of you
heard about this story, but I got some questions about it.
The story that we're talking about is a story that
(00:30):
we've heard before. Okay, there's a vehicle in this case. Yesterday,
it was a tractor trailer truck that was stuck on
a railroad crossing, and there was an MBTA train, a
commuter rail train, that ran into the tractor trailer truck
(00:51):
tractor trailer and pushed it down the track. On Wednesday,
Thank god, there was well, there was only an injury
of one passenger. Sure power lines were knocked out, but
it was quite a mess. Those of you who live
in that neck of the woods or maybe were impacted
by this. Had happened yesterday afternoon about one at a
(01:13):
crossing on Pine Street. According to Canton Police, the truck
was traveling. I'm reading here from a Globe article which
was posted late yesterday afternoon by Nick Stoiko and Sarah
Mesheidian Globe staff and Globe correspondent. The truck driver escaped
just before impact was not injured. A train passenger complained
(01:36):
of neck and back pain, taken to a local hospital
with minor injuries. Some power lines were knocked down, and
the fire chief said luckily no major injuries could have
been worse. Crashes under investigation by the MBTA Transit Police.
I don't know if they get federal authorities involved in
(01:58):
this at this point, but maybe they're going to get
involved as well, according to Transit Police Superintendent Richard Sullivan.
He responded an email, we're investigating the facts and circumstances
surrounding the incident, and this is what is interesting. It
says all proper safety warnings were functioning and operating as expected.
(02:20):
Now we're going to come back to that sentence, Okay,
how the tractor trailer truck was on the tracks and
the gates in front of the gate or the gate
came down in front of it and behind it. We'll
(02:41):
get to that. In a moment. I looked at the
video of the crash. Someone was they were in another
vehicle and they were rollings in videotape and you could
see this train just was barrel and I'm going to
talk about that as well. Images posted online by police
showed a heavily damn imaged something a Ross Express truck.
(03:03):
I have no idea perpendicular to the train. I'll bet
it was. It appeared the train that pushed the truck
down the track away from the crossing were to appear
at the gates were at least partially drawn down and
were damagedols of course runs the MBTA Computer Train Company
System said, the company that said in a statement that
(03:23):
the crossing gates at lights were operating as intended. So
that's from Keolas and the Transit Police. Superintendent Sullivan said
the proper safety warnings were functioning and operating as expected,
which would basically I think from Keola's and the MPTA
point somewhat of an accusation against the driver. I'm not
(03:47):
interested in doing that, but that's okay. The company had
no comment. The trucking company is based in New England,
with its main office up in New Hampshire and office
delivery service across New England, Delaware, Maryland, in New Jersey
as well as parts of New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and
West Virginia. According to its website, shuttle busses took passages
(04:07):
between Stote and Canton. The MVTA police this is a
piece from yesterday set on social media that the Stoke
Line trains would terminate and originate at Canton Center. Crash
happened at the same crossing where a train crashed into
a car on February twenty seventh, so that's less than
two months ago, about six weeks ago. The driver of
that car, forty nine year old woman, was taken to
(04:29):
the hospital with minor injuries. So here's my question. Okay,
I got a bunch of questions here, and some of you,
probably I hope, have more knowledge of this than maybe
I do. Why can't there be a system created which
would tell trains that you know a mile away that
(04:52):
there's a truck that is on a crossing. Now, there
could be lots of reasons a truck could be on
a crossing, could be I guess, and maybe it's a
one in a ten thousand shot that the truck is
going across the crossing and at that very moment the
truck stalls or whatever, not likely. Okay, Maybe here the
(05:18):
driver attempted to cross the crossing, didn't realize how close
the train was, and all of a sudden, down comes
the gate in front of him and at the same
time the gate behind him. So the truck is in
the crossing. Now, if it was someone's car, they could
(05:38):
probably swing around the gate. But my question is this,
if the truck was operational, and I don't know if
it was okay, but if the truck was operational, why
would the truck driver or anyone if you were in
that situation and your car was somehow trapped between these
(06:02):
two gates and all it is is just in arms
comes down. That's a piece of wood or a piece
of metal that comes down in front of you and
behind you, why would you not at that point say
to yourself, well, I can't get around this. I'm not
gonna sit here and allow my car on my truck
(06:23):
to be demolished by this train. And of course you're
not going through it the way I'm going through it. Now,
it's like an instantaneous decision. I'm gunning it through the gate.
I might damage my vehicle a little bit, I might
damage the gate that has come down a little bit,
but it's a lot better that those little damages be done.
(06:45):
Whether it was the fault again of the driver in
this case or in any case. I'm not looking to
blame the driver here. I have no idea who was
at fault here. But what I'm saying is you're there,
you're on the crossing, you see a quarter of a
mile away or whatever, or you hear the train coming,
get off the track. You'll you obviously, if for some
(07:08):
reason your car has been can't move, well, you got
to get out of the car. Okay. I analogize this too.
How many times have you been in traffic on a
road like Route nine. I'm not talking about one four
ninety five, but how long? How many times you've been
out there on a road on Route nine and you
(07:30):
hear the the ambulance siren behind you, you know, five
hundred yards or a quarter of a mile or less
than a quarter of a mile, or a fire truck
or a police car, and you're in a red light
and you're maybe the third car on the left hand side.
You have nowhere to go. You've got two cars in
front of you, you got a person to your right, and
you got you can you can't go anywhere, and nobody moves.
(07:54):
Nobody moves even though there's an ambulance coming, and their
mother could be in the back of that ambulance, or
their sister, or their brother or their father, but they
don't move. They freeze. And it's like maybe they don't
hear the siren. Maybe I guess, maybe they have the
(08:16):
radio on too loud. But the simple thing to do
is to safely get through the red light and pull
over or take a right at the red light wherever
you are, just drive down the road and get out
of the way. We don't I've sat there so many
times where you're blasting somebody on a horn. So my
(08:39):
question is, here's the question. Do people not think? Do
they freeze in terror because they don't know what to do?
Or have they never even thought about this? Well, what
would I do if I was that first car and
the right side? What would I do? Would I sit
there and make it difficult for the ambulance driver or
the fire truck or the police car to get through?
(09:00):
What I just freeze? So I want to know from you,
do you think people don't think, or do you think
people freeze in terror? Or do you think they've never
thought in advance. Well, if I'm driving sometime, what am
I gonna do if there's an ambulance coming up behind me?
Am I gonna race as fast as I can beat
the ambulance. I don't think you should do that, Okay,
(09:21):
am I gonna pull over and get out of the
ambulance's way as safely as I can. I think that's
a good idea. So I'm coming back now to the
train accident of yesterday. Let's assume you were stuck between
these two gates. You're on the train track, you see
the train coming. I'm blowing through that train. I'm blowing
through that system. Okay, I'm taking that gate with me,
(09:44):
all right, I am getting the hell out of the way.
I hope you're doing the same thing. I want to
hear from you. Have you ever been in that situation?
And what did you do? Have you ever been in
a situation where you're sitting there and you've got an
ambulance twenty cars behind you, and you you don't want
to move because the lights were in I'm just gonna
wait here till the light turns them. When the light
turns green, I'll be able to go ahead. That is crazy.
(10:07):
That is crazy. Someone's in that ambulance dying and you
are preventing them from getting to a hospital. Use your head.
Six one seven two five four ten thirty. That's the
only lines that is available right now. The other one
is all full. So six one seven two five four
ten thirty. I'm not blaming the truck driver. I have
no idea what is sort of a situation he or
(10:29):
she found themselves in. But if that truck could have moved,
why not just blow through the gate. Okay, you're going
to owe the town a couple thousand dollars to fix
the gate. That's no big deal. I mean, that's just
kind of a part of doing business here as far
as I'm concerned. If you don't get out of the truck,
(10:50):
you'll be killed. If you get out of the truck
and the and the train is pushing the truck down,
you might be killed. Come on, people, wake up. No
criticism of the truck driving. Don't know the circumstances. But
I just thought to myself, if I'm in a situation
like that and there's a gate, there's a gate that
is blocking me from going forward, and there's a train
(11:11):
that's bearing down on me. I'm taking the gate out
and guess what if they want to charge me, fine,
I'll take the fine and I'll go in front of
any judge where they have me up for destroying property
of town property. We'll take a quick break on Nightside.
If you think I'm crazy, tell me I'm crazy. If
you agree with me, let's wake people up back on
(11:34):
Nightside after.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
This Night Side with Dan Ray, I'm Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2 (11:42):
Let's go to the phone. It's gonna start off with
Maureen and Winchester. Maureen, do you think I'm crazy on this?
Speaker 3 (11:49):
Dan?
Speaker 4 (11:50):
No, you're the voice of reason. You're never crazy.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
Oh I wish youd Rob we should make that into
a promo piece. I don't think we do promo pieces anymore,
but thank you very much. Worried.
Speaker 4 (12:07):
I think the problem is on the m bt A
really I do, and I think they have a problem
with the timing of the trains and the gates. Okay,
when I've been hearing about this accident and other ones,
I was almost missed meet this past h fall. Bye yep.
(12:35):
By the uh my my heart is actually palpitating right now.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
And when I relax, don't have a heart attack.
Speaker 4 (12:48):
Okay, So what happened to me is I was driving
on a street and the gates went down, A train
went through the gates, then go up and the traffic
is supposed to proceed right. I was proceeding, and my mother,
(13:13):
who was raised on a farm in Iowa, said, always
look to your left, to your right and your left,
and don't gun it, and don't gun it over road,
ruin the undercarriage. But also you never know somebody's hot
dogging through a red light.
Speaker 5 (13:27):
Right, So I did.
Speaker 4 (13:28):
That, and I'm in the jeep starting in the gates.
All of a sudden, ding ding ding ding. The gates
are coming down, and I thought they were going to
go right through my windshield wiper. I could not. I
thought my heart was going to break open the shock
of that. And I hit the brakes because I like,
something's not right. If I had gunned it, I would
(13:51):
have been are driven normally, I would have been dead.
I quickly hit the brakes. I thought, oh, good god,
the gate's going to come through the windshield, shatter that.
And I looked in behind me and there was a
big school bus and they were driving very slowly, and
I put it quickly in reverse. The gate went down
(14:13):
and I was very shaken. Uh so I'll need several
calls to the MBTA, to Keiolas and the response I
got was that that is a timing if the gates,
nobody tells you. I had a call probably six times
(14:35):
to get different department. I requested to talk to the
head of Keolis who was at South Station. I eventually
kicked us up to the Governor's office and they put
me in touch with Emma, who's there handles these consumer issues.
And I did ask her for a call back, and
that was in December. The last time I heard I
(14:56):
got to run around from Keolas. What they here's basically
what they say is once the gates go up, you
floor it over the tracks. And I said, uh, that
can ruin the undercarriage of the car. And he goes, well,
we advise people to drive cautiously and drive fast when
the gates go up. I said, well, I've had driven
(15:16):
fast or normal, I would have been miss me. And
that's why why do you think these turn these people
are getting stuck on tracks. So what I got from
another person when I called back at different levels, right,
you get the operator, he gets the customer. Service and
different departments.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
Yeah, and plenty and they got plenty of people there,
all of whom eventually just pass you from one to
the other and they're all getting paid. I'm with you
on that.
Speaker 5 (15:43):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (15:43):
So the gate is supposed to go go down, and
it's supposed to be down for thirty seconds before a
train comes through.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
Sure, then it's.
Speaker 4 (15:52):
Supposed to go up. I said that gate went down.
The outgoing train from Cambridge out went out, the gates
went up. I was a patient driver. I'm going across
and all of a sudden the gates almost trap me
on the tracks, and so I was able to break
(16:14):
it up and go back, and then the train went through.
The gates for not are supposed to be down thirty
seconds before the train then coming from the Burbs going
into Cambridge.
Speaker 2 (16:24):
Yeah, but what they shouldn't do is they shouldn't have
the trains that close together. So in other words, you know,
if the train that's right, Yeah, if the train has
to slow down, and it's like it's like a regular
stop sign. You know, if you come to a four
full way stop and you have a green light or
it turns yellow, you stop and you sit there for
(16:45):
thirty seconds or a minute or whatever it is. And
then when it turns green, you should have you know,
an equivalent amount of time to proceed through the intersection
with in a car. You shouldn't like turn green and
then go yellow right away and be red in two seconds.
Sounds to me like the as you said, the gate
came down, you stopped, the train went through, the gate
(17:07):
went up, You start to go across, and the gate's
coming back down in a matter of a few seconds.
That's crazy.
Speaker 4 (17:14):
And they told me that, Well, what somebody told me
is that is probably timing. If we have a train
that's earlier or later, that throws everything off. I said, well,
then that's what people are getting killed on your tracks
and injured. And I said that needs to be investigated.
And you know, they say, how could an old couple
(17:35):
get stuck on a track? Do they have to mention no.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
Well the other one. Well the other thing too. That's
like saying to air traffic control is well, we had
a plane crash because the two planes collided, one ran
into the other. Wait a second, you tell one of
the planes go around and yeah, like, oh this is crazy.
What have you ever been in traffic when there's an
(17:58):
ambulance coming and nobody behind them knows what no one,
no one knows what to do.
Speaker 4 (18:04):
Yes, I I actually that happened to me just the
other day, and and you know, you know what I
was actually in. I had to go to Boston today
and the other day. You know, it's like heart palpitations.
Speaker 6 (18:16):
But uh well I get.
Speaker 2 (18:18):
Heart palpitations going into Boston just from going to Boston.
Don't worry about that. That's very normal, all right. I
hate Marien, I love you called, but I got to
run because I met my news breaking.
Speaker 4 (18:30):
But you know, it's really aggravating some people. Actually, I
saw a cargo right in front of an ambulance. I'm like,
what a ding What a ding bat?
Speaker 2 (18:37):
Yeah, well there's a lot of there's a lot of
dingbats out there. They all weren't married to Archie Bunker. Hey,
thanks Marie. Let you run.
Speaker 4 (18:45):
He needs to take responsibility for this. They need a
step up. And I'm going to call the Governor's office
again tomorrow.
Speaker 2 (18:52):
Good luck with that. Thanks, Thanks Mariy, love your call.
Call again. Thanks you're a Greg Baller. Thanks talk to
you later. Only line six. Here comes the news at
the bottom of the hour. Let's get this going, and
let's make people think that's what we're trying to do
here Tonight at Nightside, it's night.
Speaker 1 (19:15):
Boston's news Radio.
Speaker 2 (19:17):
I to go to Bernie in New Hampshire. Bernie your
next on Nightside, Go right ahead.
Speaker 6 (19:21):
Hey, thanks for taking my call.
Speaker 7 (19:23):
Dan.
Speaker 6 (19:23):
How are you doing tonight, my friend?
Speaker 2 (19:25):
I'm doing great, Bernie. I guess you can relate to
what we're talking about.
Speaker 6 (19:30):
Yeah, I am in my job capacity.
Speaker 5 (19:33):
I have a lot of different tasks.
Speaker 6 (19:35):
What I do.
Speaker 5 (19:36):
I have a CDL and I at times drive a
hazmat vehicle. And I would never pretend to try to
imagine what happened to this driver today because I wouldn't
want people second guests to me.
Speaker 2 (19:49):
And by the way, let me make it clear, I'm
not second guessing this guy. I'm just talking about if
you found yourself between a couple of gates, and probably
it's not your fault, what the hell are you do?
Speaker 6 (20:01):
Well, here's the thing with a CDO vehicle. You can't
shift going across train tracks. So you run for a dime,
you run for a dollar, you hit the train tracks,
you keep going there. You can't ship.
Speaker 5 (20:12):
That's against the lock. So how did he come to
a stop on the train tracks.
Speaker 2 (20:17):
Well, what I'm saying to Bernie, Bernie, my question is this.
Let's assume he starts across the train tracks and the
gate comes down and he stops, and you know, it
could be that the gate malfunction and twenty seconds later
the go gate goes back up, No harm, no foul.
(20:39):
But if the gate comes down and all of a
sudden he hears that there's a train a quarter of
a mile away, he done it.
Speaker 6 (20:46):
To the gate, right, Well, yeah, if he's going through it,
If he's going across the train tracks and the gates
come down and he goes through that gate and knocks
it down, he did what he was supposed to do.
You're not supposed to ship on a train track. You know,
it's supposed to come to a stop.
Speaker 5 (21:02):
So he can I mean, at the end of the
day he tells his this back to Hey, I was
going across the tracks. You know legally, I cannot shift.
I cannot stop. I went through the gate.
Speaker 2 (21:13):
What's the word you use? Wait, you said I cannot
I cannot legally did you say shift like down shift?
Speaker 6 (21:21):
Yeah, you can't shift, but you know you can't shift
crossing frame tracks with a CD.
Speaker 2 (21:25):
Correct. Right, But but Bernie, I'm not a CDO guy,
so I want to make sure I understand what you're saying.
You're really saying you can't stop. You got to keep going.
Correct in layman's language, you're saying you can't shift means
you can't you know, shift down and stop, slow down.
You got to keep going. Okay, I got it.
Speaker 6 (21:43):
You gotta keep going. Yeah, yeah, And he's well with
his rights. And then your cause damage that you know,
that's between theolis and the.
Speaker 5 (21:54):
And the company.
Speaker 2 (21:56):
Okay, fair enough, All right, Well that explains that one.
Speaker 6 (21:58):
But one other things.
Speaker 5 (22:00):
And I was coming through Weymouth Landing today and a
pickup and I see an ambulance coming up behind me,
and people in the waymouth limb and land and seem
to be shot on common sense or are common curtsy.
And I see an ambulance, So I pull out two lanes.
I pulled it up right, and there's someone an escalade
behind me, pulls around me, keeps throwing and everyone out
(22:24):
behind me pulled over to and he just started the
right lane and kept going, and the ambulance got in
the west lane and kept going.
Speaker 2 (22:29):
Wow. Yeah, yeah, I mean Uh, you've been in situations
where nobody moves and it's so frustrating you. You know,
you hear the siren. I'm blasting my horn and people
just they freeze, they panic.
Speaker 5 (22:43):
They don't know what happened to me yesterday on eighteen
by the south Shore Hospital when I put them into
the level lane, the left hand lane, which was the
oncoming traffic lane, to let the ambulance get through. I
don't maybe the wrong decision, but the everyone's got through.
Speaker 2 (22:57):
You gotta do what you got to do under those circumstances, says.
It could be it could be your your child, it
could be your family member, it could be a neighbor,
whoever it is. It doesn't matter whether you know the
person or not. That ambulance is trying to get someone
to a hospital for medical attention, and that that has
to be the priority. Bernie, thank you much. I appreciate you.
Speaker 6 (23:17):
Call. Thank you Tobe.
Speaker 2 (23:19):
He thanks much. Six one seven, got two lines at
six one seven, nine, three, one ten thirty. Let me
go to Dave and wear them wear him.
Speaker 6 (23:27):
Hey Dave, how are you good evening? Dan?
Speaker 2 (23:31):
How are you doing great?
Speaker 8 (23:34):
Uh?
Speaker 2 (23:34):
What do you think about this dilemma that I have
presented to you and the rest of my audience tonight.
Speaker 6 (23:43):
Well, common sense, you know, that's what we got to
have it. Come on, I mean you're going to that's
only a wood barrier that comes down in front of you,
you know, that's what I look at it.
Speaker 2 (23:55):
Yeah, I don't care if it's a wood barrier. I
don't care if it's metal or steel. I'm going through.
Speaker 7 (24:01):
It looks wouldn't to me.
Speaker 6 (24:02):
And if you have pretty lights sometimes on it. But
believe me, there's a train coming. If you're not crashing
through it, you ain't even know. I ain't driving with you,
don't We'll have that straight all of my life if
I'm with you.
Speaker 2 (24:16):
So, how do you think that? So? So, Dave, how
do you think that happened yesterday? I mean, I can
see that the truck driver is on the tracks and
both of the gates come down. But you hear the
train whistle or you know you're on a train track.
You look, you must see something get off?
Speaker 6 (24:37):
You know anything about that driver himself?
Speaker 2 (24:41):
No? No, And I don't want it in any way,
shape or form, calling to question his judgment.
Speaker 6 (24:46):
Yeah, right, but we're all, well, this is it. You
heard what I said, and that's me, you know, come on.
Speaker 2 (24:59):
What about what about the Yeah, what I'm saying is
people freeze. I'm not saying the guy froze or anything.
Who knows what happened. I wasn't there, But I have
been in situations where you're on you know, a two
lane road like a Route nine or I don't know,
you know the VFW Parkway one of those roads where
where it's heavily trafficked, and you hear an ambulance in
(25:22):
behind you, you know, two hundred yards and you look
at all the cars. Nobody moves. Somebody sitting at a
red light, It's like they cantle through a red light.
What are they think they're going to do? Get written
up by a cop? Pull over, get out of the way,
let the ambulance through.
Speaker 6 (25:39):
Well, I can tell you the truth, Dan, I goes.
I drive a lot, you know, living and whatnot.
Speaker 5 (25:45):
But yeah, I.
Speaker 6 (25:46):
Run into that six to eight times a year. That's
how many times I run under that. And what do
you think I do.
Speaker 3 (25:55):
Through the light?
Speaker 6 (25:56):
I see, of course, you know what I mean. And
then I and I look him back, give me to
see what's going on, and then I'm gone. I'm going
through it.
Speaker 9 (26:03):
I don't care.
Speaker 2 (26:05):
Well, obviously, you want to, you want to make sure
that you're not going to t bone somebody going through
the light. But if if the traffic is if the
traffic's too heavy, the traffic's too heavy, and and you're
in a light, hook a right, you know, get get
out of the way. If you've got to go up
and turn around. You know, we all have GPS. Now
you get back on the main road, it won't be
(26:25):
that difficult. But I just see people freeze. I think
some people got a headset on. They're listening to music
and they're rocking out and they don't know what's going on.
Speaker 6 (26:37):
You know, you got Dave's permission. Away here, go through
the damn light. Get the hell out of the way,
no matter what the cost.
Speaker 2 (26:46):
Couldn't agree with you more, Dave, You're you're my sort
of guy. You're my sort of guy. Hey, thank you
for joining us, keep it keep it going here, you
call it again? Okay. I really enjoyed the call. I
love your sense of humor. Thanks, thank you.
Speaker 6 (27:00):
Wait, yeah, yeah, good night.
Speaker 2 (27:05):
Six one seven two one six one seven two five
four ten thirty or six one seven nine three one
ten thirty. Look, all of us have seen it. I'd
like to hear from you. Tell me what you would do.
I mean, if there's anyone out there who's going to
say to me, well, there's a red light, I'm going
to stop and wait till the red light turns. You're in.
(27:26):
You're a jerk, okay, so call him, call me up
and I'll call you a jerk to your face. Get
out of the way. If it's an ambulance, it's a
fire truck, it could be your house on fire, simple
as that. And I want to come back to the
to the to the crash. First of all, I think
that the trains. There better be a better system out
there for the trains. It's as simple as that. Let
(27:47):
me get one more in here before the break. Going
to go to John in Middleborough. Hey John, you're next
one nightside. Welcome night Dan. Thanks, let me be here absolutely,
So what's your thought on both of these dilemmas that
I have that I've talked about? One the vehicle on
the track, do you do you smash through the gate?
(28:08):
I smashed through the gate.
Speaker 6 (28:10):
Absolutely, drive through them. In many cases they're made to break.
I got it. I work for am tracked about fifteen
and a half years now. Okay, and information on the
crossing gate. Yes, the mechanism that control does not pull
them down.
Speaker 9 (28:29):
It allows them.
Speaker 6 (28:30):
To fall by grabbing. When they're down, they can easily
be lifted by hand and traffic control through or escape train.
Speaker 2 (28:41):
Sure, but if you don't have time, I mean, if
all of a sudden you see a train a couple
hundred yards away, don't try to get out of the
car and quietly walk over, you know, get through the
get off the track.
Speaker 6 (28:55):
Through the gate if you can, assuming that's not traffic
right on the other side of the gate.
Speaker 2 (29:00):
You got it.
Speaker 6 (29:00):
But although if you get the spctor on a cropping,
well whatever. We virtually every great crossing in the United
States has at least one blue signs with white letter
has a poultry numbers called it dispector or trains on
that line.
Speaker 2 (29:18):
Oh okay, the name of.
Speaker 6 (29:21):
The crossing and the number of the crossing. So they
called the fact there's a problem stop any approaching credits.
Speaker 2 (29:30):
That's great information. I did not know that.
Speaker 6 (29:33):
Yeah, take a look next time we go over acrossing.
Speaker 2 (29:36):
I will, I will, you know, I'll bettion. There'd be
some some people who'll be going over crossing tomorrow thinking
about John from Middleborough. Great advice, John. That's what I
love about my audience. There's always smarter people in my
audience than me, who knows more about a specific subject.
Thank you so much for joining us. That's very helpful,
very helpful.
Speaker 6 (29:56):
Thank you, Mek you soon, Thanks John, Thank you much.
Speaker 2 (30:00):
Got to take a break. One line at six one
seven two four ten thirty. Got one line at six
one seven ninety. We're coming right back if you want
to get in dial now because we have a guest
coming up at ten. I'm not carrying this over. This
has been a great topic. Let's keep it rolling. Coming
right back on Nightside.
Speaker 1 (30:16):
It's Nights Eye with Dan Ray on Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2 (30:23):
Back. We got great calls, Let's keep rolling. Going to
try to get them all in Ron and Stoat and
run next on nights.
Speaker 3 (30:29):
How How are you Dan? Longtime, no talk to uh.
I just want to say this about that accident yesterday.
First of all, I did a lot of train safety
programs at toy train shows. I'm a big train fanatic,
and there's the one thing I've always said to people,
especially kids, stop, look and listen I drive a truck,
(30:51):
and I know when you stop. I saw the films
on this. This guy went around the gates and he
was cited for doing. If you watch the films, he
deserves to be cited. He could have caused more than
a major accident. You don't forget it takes a long
time to stop a train, whether it's going thirty miles
an hour or fifty miles an hour, whether it's passenger
(31:14):
or a freight. He was wrong, and but we do
need to have four way gates at all crossings. You know,
he made a stupid decision. And like you said earlier,
it's the same type of people that won't pull over
for an ambulance or a fire engine or a police car.
And people have to be more aware of what they're
(31:36):
doing when they're driving.
Speaker 2 (31:38):
You bet you, you bet you. Safety for safety for
yourself and safety for everyone else, and safety right person
in the back of that ambulance because their life is
in jeopardy.
Speaker 3 (31:48):
Maybe that's right, and also safety for the engineer of
that train.
Speaker 2 (31:52):
Sure, absolutely absolutely, you know, run great points, great points.
I got back lines trying to get right.
Speaker 3 (32:00):
I wanted to get my two cents for it then
and it was.
Speaker 2 (32:02):
Something like you got more than two cents in call anytime. Okay,
thanks Ron, thank you for talk again. Thanks much. Good night.
Let me go to Paul and Weymouth. Paul you next
one nights. I go right ahead.
Speaker 9 (32:13):
Hey Dan, big fan, how are hey? Listen? That guy
who that guy who called from Weymouth. He says, you
can't shift on the track. Well, first of all, all
the trucks are automatic now, so there's there's no shifting.
I've been driving CDL forty five years and I've been
driving automatic for three years and I still reach for
the clutch.
Speaker 2 (32:35):
Old habits die hard. So what would have you done
if you were that on that track?
Speaker 9 (32:39):
Well, I don't know.
Speaker 5 (32:40):
I don't know.
Speaker 9 (32:41):
I saw it, I saw the video. I'd go through it,
but I don't know. If it's I don't know, if
I don't know, if he's stalled or what happened, I
don't know. But as far as shifting, look, they said
all the trucks are automatic, so there's only whatever. But
to get to your point about people not stopped and
the ambulances.
Speaker 6 (33:01):
You know that rule for.
Speaker 9 (33:04):
Slow down or pull over for a stalled vehicle on
the highway, Yes, sure. So I'm in my eighteen wheeler.
I pull over to the center lane to go buy
an accident or break down or whatever it may be.
And I go to pull I go to pull back
into the right lane, and there's somebody passing me. It
(33:25):
happened long. They just don't I don't know what they're thinking,
you know, So.
Speaker 2 (33:33):
They're thinking this smarter than you are. And one thing
I found out about long haul truck drivers is they
know what they're doing. Okay, so give them plenty of room.
Speaker 9 (33:43):
Well that's that's all I want to tell you. Was
like I go to pull over. When I go to
pull back, somebody's passing me on the right. It's like,
you got it, you got it.
Speaker 2 (33:52):
Everybody's looking at that little itch. Hey, Paul is always
thanks so much for the call. Appreciated. We'll talk again.
Speaker 9 (33:57):
Okay, Thanks Jim, thank you, Thank you.
Speaker 2 (34:00):
Be safe. Steve is in Rockland. Steve, you're next night's
IM gonna get you and at least a couple more
in Go ahead, Steve d Yes, sir, Dan, can you
hear me here? You perfectly go right ahead?
Speaker 10 (34:12):
Okay, thank you for taking my call.
Speaker 2 (34:15):
You're welcome.
Speaker 10 (34:16):
I just want to let you know here in Brockton.
I don't know who designed it, who's responsible, but we
have the train come to Brockton and we always have
the the the the the English.
Speaker 9 (34:29):
The gate.
Speaker 10 (34:30):
We don't have any. All we have is bridges and tunnels.
There are no gates in Brockton.
Speaker 2 (34:36):
You want to be safe, come on, good idea.
Speaker 10 (34:39):
Okay, I think they got to go around and everywhere
there's a gate, they should put a bridge or a tunnel.
Speaker 2 (34:47):
Okay, Well that's gonna take a lot of work, but
I think it's a great idea. It's certainly a lot
safer if that's not bad idea. Do you pull over
when an ambulance is coming up behind you're a fire
truck or a police officer?
Speaker 10 (34:57):
I hope we haven't referred to as the intersection from
hell right here and brogh when you give it from
when you first get off. Yeah, just just just just yesterday,
I heard the siren and there's thousands of cars. You
cannot tell where it's coming from. This it's not you
can't really blame the person in front of me, but
I heard them and I know where they usually come
down Pleasant Street.
Speaker 5 (35:18):
White pulled up to the right and.
Speaker 6 (35:19):
Nobody else did.
Speaker 2 (35:21):
It's crazy.
Speaker 10 (35:22):
So it has to do with your your ability, I
think to perceive where the siren noise is actually coming from.
I got your directional hearing.
Speaker 2 (35:30):
But still your instinct is to find a way to
get out of it. You got to pull into a
gas station, pull into a gas stage, if you got
to pull into a parking lot, clear the road, let
the let the emergency vehicle through.
Speaker 6 (35:41):
That should be the rule, idea.
Speaker 2 (35:43):
That's right. I got two more of you to thank you, Steve.
Let me go to Sandra in Carver. Sandra, I got
one you and one more. Go ahead, Sandra, Okay.
Speaker 8 (35:53):
Real quick. I just want to say when I was
a kid, they used manned men at the crosswalk. Every
crossing there was a guy. Today it's all computerized and
they're always sailing now. I was coming down Route fifty
eight to go to Rochester one night to dog training.
I usually look both ways. I don't know if I
(36:14):
did that night, but when I went to cross there
was no lights, no gate went down, total malfunction. I
look and there was a train, so I just kept
I just kept on moving, and when I got to
a phone, I called it in. They said, oh, Yeah,
we knew we have a problem there. Well, why wasn't
there a cruiser or somebody there? Yeah, to control the situation?
Speaker 2 (36:35):
How much? How close was it that the train missed you? Obviously?
Speaker 3 (36:39):
How well?
Speaker 8 (36:39):
It was was night and all I could see was
the great, big, huge light.
Speaker 7 (36:45):
You know. But I'm quit you had a.
Speaker 2 (36:47):
Guardian angel on your shoulder that night.
Speaker 8 (36:49):
Sandra, Right, Well, I think I do all the time anyway.
And also just to say this, I worked as a
nurse at night and for a while, for a three
year period, I also did the ambulance for the town. Yes,
I was an empty so I had some of that experience.
But most times people do pull over for you. But
I think lately, through whatever reason, everybody's getting cocky. They
(37:13):
don't pull.
Speaker 3 (37:14):
Over like they use it.
Speaker 2 (37:15):
I think a lot of people got the music on
the radio or the ear or the earphones on. They
don't hear it, or they're not paying attention, or they're
just dumb. They're absolutely dumb. I can use a stronger word,
but I'll just say dumb. And they think that that
for them to get to wherever they're going is the
most important thing in the world. Although somebody may be
dying an ambulance ten cars behind them, simple as that.
Speaker 8 (37:37):
Right, well, but anyway that.
Speaker 2 (37:40):
Could be too absolutely, thanks Andrew, talk to you soon.
Speaker 8 (37:44):
Okay, thank you, bye.
Speaker 2 (37:45):
Well, I won more before ten. It's Robert and Wellesley. Robert,
you're gonna wrap us up. I got about a minute,
go ahead, Robert.
Speaker 7 (37:52):
Okay, yeah, stop, look lessen. A lot of people at
the railroad crossing, A lot of people aren't aware of
that role. Also as you as you know, also emergency
lights on passenger cars tend to be underused. So to
prevent being rear ended, if you stop, look and listen
by the railroad track, I suggest putting on the emergency lights.
Speaker 10 (38:11):
Then.
Speaker 7 (38:11):
Also, if there's an emergency vehicle such as an ambulance approaching,
you don't know where they're coming from. I also we
suggest using emergency lights again, making people around you aware
that you're aware of the siren approaching, and you're making
to right.
Speaker 2 (38:26):
All great points. Robert. I used to tell my kids
when they went back to school, we do we take
a little walk a couple of days before going back
to school when they were in elementary school and things
like that, and I would say, look, listen and learn.
So that's kind of the same thing you're saying in
terms of driving.
Speaker 3 (38:42):
Right.
Speaker 2 (38:42):
Hey, Robert, thank you as always, I enjoy your calls.
Thanks very much, we'll talk again. Thank you so much.
Speaker 7 (38:48):
Thank you, good night, good night.
Speaker 2 (38:49):
Okay, we're done for this hour. That was a great hour.
I want to thank everyone, Maureen, Brunie, Dave, John, Ron, Paul, Steve,
Sandra and Robert. Great calls and thank you very much
for agreeing with me, and hopefully some of you have
heard what we said. Tonight when we come back, we're
going to talk with a really interesting guest about what's
going on in the stock market. This is a very
(39:12):
very smart guy and any questions you have he can
take him for you. We will be back right after
the ten o'clock news with a guest that will amaze you.
Back on Nightside,
It's Night Side with Dan Ray on WBZ Koston's video.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
A tough night for the Bruins. They were ahead when nothing.
Now they're behind three to one, sort of like the season.
They started off pretty well and ever since January first
has been not been great. Well, anyway, it wasn't great
yesterday in Canton. I don't know how many of you
heard about this story, but I got some questions about it.
The story that we're talking about is a story that
(00:30):
we've heard before. Okay, there's a vehicle in this case. Yesterday,
it was a tractor trailer truck that was stuck on
a railroad crossing, and there was an MBTA train, a
commuter rail train, that ran into the tractor trailer truck
(00:51):
tractor trailer and pushed it down the track. On Wednesday,
Thank god, there was well, there was only an injury
of one passenger. Sure power lines were knocked out, but
it was quite a mess. Those of you who live
in that neck of the woods or maybe were impacted
by this. Had happened yesterday afternoon about one at a
(01:13):
crossing on Pine Street. According to Canton Police, the truck
was traveling. I'm reading here from a Globe article which
was posted late yesterday afternoon by Nick Stoiko and Sarah
Mesheidian Globe staff and Globe correspondent. The truck driver escaped
just before impact was not injured. A train passenger complained
(01:36):
of neck and back pain, taken to a local hospital
with minor injuries. Some power lines were knocked down, and
the fire chief said luckily no major injuries could have
been worse. Crashes under investigation by the MBTA Transit Police.
I don't know if they get federal authorities involved in
(01:58):
this at this point, but maybe they're going to get
involved as well, according to Transit Police Superintendent Richard Sullivan.
He responded an email, we're investigating the facts and circumstances
surrounding the incident, and this is what is interesting. It
says all proper safety warnings were functioning and operating as expected.
(02:20):
Now we're going to come back to that sentence, Okay,
how the tractor trailer truck was on the tracks and
the gates in front of the gate or the gate
came down in front of it and behind it. We'll
(02:41):
get to that. In a moment. I looked at the
video of the crash. Someone was they were in another
vehicle and they were rollings in videotape and you could
see this train just was barrel and I'm going to
talk about that as well. Images posted online by police
showed a heavily damn imaged something a Ross Express truck.
(03:03):
I have no idea perpendicular to the train. I'll bet
it was. It appeared the train that pushed the truck
down the track away from the crossing were to appear
at the gates were at least partially drawn down and
were damagedols of course runs the MBTA Computer Train Company
System said, the company that said in a statement that
(03:23):
the crossing gates at lights were operating as intended. So
that's from Keolas and the Transit Police. Superintendent Sullivan said
the proper safety warnings were functioning and operating as expected,
which would basically I think from Keola's and the MPTA
point somewhat of an accusation against the driver. I'm not
(03:47):
interested in doing that, but that's okay. The company had
no comment. The trucking company is based in New England,
with its main office up in New Hampshire and office
delivery service across New England, Delaware, Maryland, in New Jersey
as well as parts of New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and
West Virginia. According to its website, shuttle busses took passages
(04:07):
between Stote and Canton. The MVTA police this is a
piece from yesterday set on social media that the Stoke
Line trains would terminate and originate at Canton Center. Crash
happened at the same crossing where a train crashed into
a car on February twenty seventh, so that's less than
two months ago, about six weeks ago. The driver of
that car, forty nine year old woman, was taken to
(04:29):
the hospital with minor injuries. So here's my question. Okay,
I got a bunch of questions here, and some of you,
probably I hope, have more knowledge of this than maybe
I do. Why can't there be a system created which
would tell trains that you know a mile away that
(04:52):
there's a truck that is on a crossing. Now, there
could be lots of reasons a truck could be on
a crossing, could be I guess, and maybe it's a
one in a ten thousand shot that the truck is
going across the crossing and at that very moment the
truck stalls or whatever, not likely. Okay, Maybe here the
(05:18):
driver attempted to cross the crossing, didn't realize how close
the train was, and all of a sudden, down comes
the gate in front of him and at the same
time the gate behind him. So the truck is in
the crossing. Now, if it was someone's car, they could
(05:38):
probably swing around the gate. But my question is this,
if the truck was operational, and I don't know if
it was okay, but if the truck was operational, why
would the truck driver or anyone if you were in
that situation and your car was somehow trapped between these
(06:02):
two gates and all it is is just in arms
comes down. That's a piece of wood or a piece
of metal that comes down in front of you and
behind you, why would you not at that point say
to yourself, well, I can't get around this. I'm not
gonna sit here and allow my car on my truck
(06:23):
to be demolished by this train. And of course you're
not going through it the way I'm going through it. Now,
it's like an instantaneous decision. I'm gunning it through the gate.
I might damage my vehicle a little bit, I might
damage the gate that has come down a little bit,
but it's a lot better that those little damages be done.
(06:45):
Whether it was the fault again of the driver in
this case or in any case. I'm not looking to
blame the driver here. I have no idea who was
at fault here. But what I'm saying is you're there,
you're on the crossing, you see a quarter of a
mile away or whatever, or you hear the train coming,
get off the track. You'll you obviously, if for some
(07:08):
reason your car has been can't move, well, you got
to get out of the car. Okay. I analogize this too.
How many times have you been in traffic on a
road like Route nine. I'm not talking about one four
ninety five, but how long? How many times you've been
out there on a road on Route nine and you
(07:30):
hear the the ambulance siren behind you, you know, five
hundred yards or a quarter of a mile or less
than a quarter of a mile, or a fire truck
or a police car, and you're in a red light
and you're maybe the third car on the left hand side.
You have nowhere to go. You've got two cars in
front of you, you got a person to your right, and
you got you can you can't go anywhere, and nobody moves.
(07:54):
Nobody moves even though there's an ambulance coming, and their
mother could be in the back of that ambulance, or
their sister, or their brother or their father, but they
don't move. They freeze. And it's like maybe they don't
hear the siren. Maybe I guess, maybe they have the
(08:16):
radio on too loud. But the simple thing to do
is to safely get through the red light and pull
over or take a right at the red light wherever
you are, just drive down the road and get out
of the way. We don't I've sat there so many
times where you're blasting somebody on a horn. So my
(08:39):
question is, here's the question. Do people not think? Do
they freeze in terror because they don't know what to do?
Or have they never even thought about this? Well, what
would I do if I was that first car and
the right side? What would I do? Would I sit
there and make it difficult for the ambulance driver or
the fire truck or the police car to get through?
(09:00):
What I just freeze? So I want to know from you,
do you think people don't think, or do you think
people freeze in terror? Or do you think they've never
thought in advance. Well, if I'm driving sometime, what am
I gonna do if there's an ambulance coming up behind me?
Am I gonna race as fast as I can beat
the ambulance. I don't think you should do that, Okay,
(09:21):
am I gonna pull over and get out of the
ambulance's way as safely as I can. I think that's
a good idea. So I'm coming back now to the
train accident of yesterday. Let's assume you were stuck between
these two gates. You're on the train track, you see
the train coming. I'm blowing through that train. I'm blowing
through that system. Okay, I'm taking that gate with me,
(09:44):
all right, I am getting the hell out of the way.
I hope you're doing the same thing. I want to
hear from you. Have you ever been in that situation?
And what did you do? Have you ever been in
a situation where you're sitting there and you've got an
ambulance twenty cars behind you, and you you don't want
to move because the lights were in I'm just gonna
wait here till the light turns them. When the light
turns green, I'll be able to go ahead. That is crazy.
(10:07):
That is crazy. Someone's in that ambulance dying and you
are preventing them from getting to a hospital. Use your head.
Six one seven two five four ten thirty. That's the
only lines that is available right now. The other one
is all full. So six one seven two five four
ten thirty. I'm not blaming the truck driver. I have
no idea what is sort of a situation he or
(10:29):
she found themselves in. But if that truck could have moved,
why not just blow through the gate. Okay, you're going
to owe the town a couple thousand dollars to fix
the gate. That's no big deal. I mean, that's just
kind of a part of doing business here as far
as I'm concerned. If you don't get out of the truck,
(10:50):
you'll be killed. If you get out of the truck
and the and the train is pushing the truck down,
you might be killed. Come on, people, wake up. No
criticism of the truck driving. Don't know the circumstances. But
I just thought to myself, if I'm in a situation
like that and there's a gate, there's a gate that
is blocking me from going forward, and there's a train
(11:11):
that's bearing down on me. I'm taking the gate out
and guess what if they want to charge me, fine,
I'll take the fine and I'll go in front of
any judge where they have me up for destroying property
of town property. We'll take a quick break on Nightside.
If you think I'm crazy, tell me I'm crazy. If
you agree with me, let's wake people up back on
(11:34):
Nightside after.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
This Night Side with Dan Ray, I'm Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2 (11:42):
Let's go to the phone. It's gonna start off with
Maureen and Winchester. Maureen, do you think I'm crazy on this?
Speaker 3 (11:49):
Dan?
Speaker 4 (11:50):
No, you're the voice of reason. You're never crazy.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
Oh I wish youd Rob we should make that into
a promo piece. I don't think we do promo pieces anymore,
but thank you very much. Worried.
Speaker 4 (12:07):
I think the problem is on the m bt A
really I do, and I think they have a problem
with the timing of the trains and the gates. Okay,
when I've been hearing about this accident and other ones,
I was almost missed meet this past h fall. Bye yep.
(12:35):
By the uh my my heart is actually palpitating right now.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
And when I relax, don't have a heart attack.
Speaker 4 (12:48):
Okay, So what happened to me is I was driving
on a street and the gates went down, A train
went through the gates, then go up and the traffic
is supposed to proceed right. I was proceeding, and my mother,
(13:13):
who was raised on a farm in Iowa, said, always
look to your left, to your right and your left,
and don't gun it, and don't gun it over road,
ruin the undercarriage. But also you never know somebody's hot
dogging through a red light.
Speaker 5 (13:27):
Right, So I did.
Speaker 4 (13:28):
That, and I'm in the jeep starting in the gates.
All of a sudden, ding ding ding ding. The gates
are coming down, and I thought they were going to
go right through my windshield wiper. I could not. I
thought my heart was going to break open the shock
of that. And I hit the brakes because I like,
something's not right. If I had gunned it, I would
(13:51):
have been are driven normally, I would have been dead.
I quickly hit the brakes. I thought, oh, good god,
the gate's going to come through the windshield, shatter that.
And I looked in behind me and there was a
big school bus and they were driving very slowly, and
I put it quickly in reverse. The gate went down
(14:13):
and I was very shaken. Uh so I'll need several
calls to the MBTA, to Keiolas and the response I
got was that that is a timing if the gates,
nobody tells you. I had a call probably six times
(14:35):
to get different department. I requested to talk to the
head of Keolis who was at South Station. I eventually
kicked us up to the Governor's office and they put
me in touch with Emma, who's there handles these consumer issues.
And I did ask her for a call back, and
that was in December. The last time I heard I
(14:56):
got to run around from Keolas. What they here's basically
what they say is once the gates go up, you
floor it over the tracks. And I said, uh, that
can ruin the undercarriage of the car. And he goes, well,
we advise people to drive cautiously and drive fast when
the gates go up. I said, well, I've had driven
(15:16):
fast or normal, I would have been miss me. And
that's why why do you think these turn these people
are getting stuck on tracks. So what I got from
another person when I called back at different levels, right,
you get the operator, he gets the customer. Service and
different departments.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
Yeah, and plenty and they got plenty of people there,
all of whom eventually just pass you from one to
the other and they're all getting paid. I'm with you
on that.
Speaker 5 (15:43):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (15:43):
So the gate is supposed to go go down, and
it's supposed to be down for thirty seconds before a
train comes through.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
Sure, then it's.
Speaker 4 (15:52):
Supposed to go up. I said that gate went down.
The outgoing train from Cambridge out went out, the gates
went up. I was a patient driver. I'm going across
and all of a sudden the gates almost trap me
on the tracks, and so I was able to break
(16:14):
it up and go back, and then the train went through.
The gates for not are supposed to be down thirty
seconds before the train then coming from the Burbs going
into Cambridge.
Speaker 2 (16:24):
Yeah, but what they shouldn't do is they shouldn't have
the trains that close together. So in other words, you know,
if the train that's right, Yeah, if the train has
to slow down, and it's like it's like a regular
stop sign. You know, if you come to a four
full way stop and you have a green light or
it turns yellow, you stop and you sit there for
(16:45):
thirty seconds or a minute or whatever it is. And
then when it turns green, you should have you know,
an equivalent amount of time to proceed through the intersection
with in a car. You shouldn't like turn green and
then go yellow right away and be red in two seconds.
Sounds to me like the as you said, the gate
came down, you stopped, the train went through, the gate
(17:07):
went up, You start to go across, and the gate's
coming back down in a matter of a few seconds.
That's crazy.
Speaker 4 (17:14):
And they told me that, Well, what somebody told me
is that is probably timing. If we have a train
that's earlier or later, that throws everything off. I said, well,
then that's what people are getting killed on your tracks
and injured. And I said that needs to be investigated.
And you know, they say, how could an old couple
(17:35):
get stuck on a track? Do they have to mention no.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
Well the other one. Well the other thing too. That's
like saying to air traffic control is well, we had
a plane crash because the two planes collided, one ran
into the other. Wait a second, you tell one of
the planes go around and yeah, like, oh this is crazy.
What have you ever been in traffic when there's an
(17:58):
ambulance coming and nobody behind them knows what no one,
no one knows what to do.
Speaker 4 (18:04):
Yes, I I actually that happened to me just the
other day, and and you know, you know what I
was actually in. I had to go to Boston today
and the other day. You know, it's like heart palpitations.
Speaker 6 (18:16):
But uh well I get.
Speaker 2 (18:18):
Heart palpitations going into Boston just from going to Boston.
Don't worry about that. That's very normal, all right. I
hate Marien, I love you called, but I got to
run because I met my news breaking.
Speaker 4 (18:30):
But you know, it's really aggravating some people. Actually, I
saw a cargo right in front of an ambulance. I'm like,
what a ding What a ding bat?
Speaker 2 (18:37):
Yeah, well there's a lot of there's a lot of
dingbats out there. They all weren't married to Archie Bunker. Hey,
thanks Marie. Let you run.
Speaker 4 (18:45):
He needs to take responsibility for this. They need a
step up. And I'm going to call the Governor's office
again tomorrow.
Speaker 2 (18:52):
Good luck with that. Thanks, Thanks Mariy, love your call.
Call again. Thanks you're a Greg Baller. Thanks talk to
you later. Only line six. Here comes the news at
the bottom of the hour. Let's get this going, and
let's make people think that's what we're trying to do
here Tonight at Nightside, it's night.
Speaker 1 (19:15):
Boston's news Radio.
Speaker 2 (19:17):
I to go to Bernie in New Hampshire. Bernie your
next on Nightside, Go right ahead.
Speaker 6 (19:21):
Hey, thanks for taking my call.
Speaker 7 (19:23):
Dan.
Speaker 6 (19:23):
How are you doing tonight, my friend?
Speaker 2 (19:25):
I'm doing great, Bernie. I guess you can relate to
what we're talking about.
Speaker 6 (19:30):
Yeah, I am in my job capacity.
Speaker 5 (19:33):
I have a lot of different tasks.
Speaker 6 (19:35):
What I do.
Speaker 5 (19:36):
I have a CDL and I at times drive a
hazmat vehicle. And I would never pretend to try to
imagine what happened to this driver today because I wouldn't
want people second guests to me.
Speaker 2 (19:49):
And by the way, let me make it clear, I'm
not second guessing this guy. I'm just talking about if
you found yourself between a couple of gates, and probably
it's not your fault, what the hell are you do?
Speaker 6 (20:01):
Well, here's the thing with a CDO vehicle. You can't
shift going across train tracks. So you run for a dime,
you run for a dollar, you hit the train tracks,
you keep going there. You can't ship.
Speaker 5 (20:12):
That's against the lock. So how did he come to
a stop on the train tracks.
Speaker 2 (20:17):
Well, what I'm saying to Bernie, Bernie, my question is this.
Let's assume he starts across the train tracks and the
gate comes down and he stops, and you know, it
could be that the gate malfunction and twenty seconds later
the go gate goes back up, No harm, no foul.
(20:39):
But if the gate comes down and all of a
sudden he hears that there's a train a quarter of
a mile away, he done it.
Speaker 6 (20:46):
To the gate, right, Well, yeah, if he's going through it,
If he's going across the train tracks and the gates
come down and he goes through that gate and knocks
it down, he did what he was supposed to do.
You're not supposed to ship on a train track. You know,
it's supposed to come to a stop.
Speaker 5 (21:02):
So he can I mean, at the end of the
day he tells his this back to Hey, I was
going across the tracks. You know legally, I cannot shift.
I cannot stop. I went through the gate.
Speaker 2 (21:13):
What's the word you use? Wait, you said I cannot
I cannot legally did you say shift like down shift?
Speaker 6 (21:21):
Yeah, you can't shift, but you know you can't shift
crossing frame tracks with a CD.
Speaker 2 (21:25):
Correct. Right, But but Bernie, I'm not a CDO guy,
so I want to make sure I understand what you're saying.
You're really saying you can't stop. You got to keep going.
Correct in layman's language, you're saying you can't shift means
you can't you know, shift down and stop, slow down.
You got to keep going. Okay, I got it.
Speaker 6 (21:43):
You gotta keep going. Yeah, yeah, And he's well with
his rights. And then your cause damage that you know,
that's between theolis and the.
Speaker 5 (21:54):
And the company.
Speaker 2 (21:56):
Okay, fair enough, All right, Well that explains that one.
Speaker 6 (21:58):
But one other things.
Speaker 5 (22:00):
And I was coming through Weymouth Landing today and a
pickup and I see an ambulance coming up behind me,
and people in the waymouth limb and land and seem
to be shot on common sense or are common curtsy.
And I see an ambulance, So I pull out two lanes.
I pulled it up right, and there's someone an escalade
behind me, pulls around me, keeps throwing and everyone out
(22:24):
behind me pulled over to and he just started the
right lane and kept going, and the ambulance got in
the west lane and kept going.
Speaker 2 (22:29):
Wow. Yeah, yeah, I mean Uh, you've been in situations
where nobody moves and it's so frustrating you. You know,
you hear the siren. I'm blasting my horn and people
just they freeze, they panic.
Speaker 5 (22:43):
They don't know what happened to me yesterday on eighteen
by the south Shore Hospital when I put them into
the level lane, the left hand lane, which was the
oncoming traffic lane, to let the ambulance get through. I
don't maybe the wrong decision, but the everyone's got through.
Speaker 2 (22:57):
You gotta do what you got to do under those circumstances, says.
It could be it could be your your child, it
could be your family member, it could be a neighbor,
whoever it is. It doesn't matter whether you know the
person or not. That ambulance is trying to get someone
to a hospital for medical attention, and that that has
to be the priority. Bernie, thank you much. I appreciate you.
Speaker 6 (23:17):
Call. Thank you Tobe.
Speaker 2 (23:19):
He thanks much. Six one seven, got two lines at
six one seven, nine, three, one ten thirty. Let me
go to Dave and wear them wear him.
Speaker 6 (23:27):
Hey Dave, how are you good evening? Dan?
Speaker 2 (23:31):
How are you doing great?
Speaker 8 (23:34):
Uh?
Speaker 2 (23:34):
What do you think about this dilemma that I have
presented to you and the rest of my audience tonight.
Speaker 6 (23:43):
Well, common sense, you know, that's what we got to
have it. Come on, I mean you're going to that's
only a wood barrier that comes down in front of you,
you know, that's what I look at it.
Speaker 2 (23:55):
Yeah, I don't care if it's a wood barrier. I
don't care if it's metal or steel. I'm going through.
Speaker 7 (24:01):
It looks wouldn't to me.
Speaker 6 (24:02):
And if you have pretty lights sometimes on it. But
believe me, there's a train coming. If you're not crashing
through it, you ain't even know. I ain't driving with you,
don't We'll have that straight all of my life if
I'm with you.
Speaker 2 (24:16):
So, how do you think that? So? So, Dave, how
do you think that happened yesterday? I mean, I can
see that the truck driver is on the tracks and
both of the gates come down. But you hear the
train whistle or you know you're on a train track.
You look, you must see something get off?
Speaker 6 (24:37):
You know anything about that driver himself?
Speaker 2 (24:41):
No? No, And I don't want it in any way,
shape or form, calling to question his judgment.
Speaker 6 (24:46):
Yeah, right, but we're all, well, this is it. You
heard what I said, and that's me, you know, come on.
Speaker 2 (24:59):
What about what about the Yeah, what I'm saying is
people freeze. I'm not saying the guy froze or anything.
Who knows what happened. I wasn't there, But I have
been in situations where you're on you know, a two
lane road like a Route nine or I don't know,
you know the VFW Parkway one of those roads where
where it's heavily trafficked, and you hear an ambulance in
(25:22):
behind you, you know, two hundred yards and you look
at all the cars. Nobody moves. Somebody sitting at a
red light, It's like they cantle through a red light.
What are they think they're going to do? Get written
up by a cop? Pull over, get out of the way,
let the ambulance through.
Speaker 6 (25:39):
Well, I can tell you the truth, Dan, I goes.
I drive a lot, you know, living and whatnot.
Speaker 5 (25:45):
But yeah, I.
Speaker 6 (25:46):
Run into that six to eight times a year. That's
how many times I run under that. And what do
you think I do.
Speaker 3 (25:55):
Through the light?
Speaker 6 (25:56):
I see, of course, you know what I mean. And
then I and I look him back, give me to
see what's going on, and then I'm gone. I'm going
through it.
Speaker 9 (26:03):
I don't care.
Speaker 2 (26:05):
Well, obviously, you want to, you want to make sure
that you're not going to t bone somebody going through
the light. But if if the traffic is if the
traffic's too heavy, the traffic's too heavy, and and you're
in a light, hook a right, you know, get get
out of the way. If you've got to go up
and turn around. You know, we all have GPS. Now
you get back on the main road, it won't be
(26:25):
that difficult. But I just see people freeze. I think
some people got a headset on. They're listening to music
and they're rocking out and they don't know what's going on.
Speaker 6 (26:37):
You know, you got Dave's permission. Away here, go through
the damn light. Get the hell out of the way,
no matter what the cost.
Speaker 2 (26:46):
Couldn't agree with you more, Dave, You're you're my sort
of guy. You're my sort of guy. Hey, thank you
for joining us, keep it keep it going here, you
call it again? Okay. I really enjoyed the call. I
love your sense of humor. Thanks, thank you.
Speaker 6 (27:00):
Wait, yeah, yeah, good night.
Speaker 2 (27:05):
Six one seven two one six one seven two five
four ten thirty or six one seven nine three one
ten thirty. Look, all of us have seen it. I'd
like to hear from you. Tell me what you would do.
I mean, if there's anyone out there who's going to
say to me, well, there's a red light, I'm going
to stop and wait till the red light turns. You're in.
(27:26):
You're a jerk, okay, so call him, call me up
and I'll call you a jerk to your face. Get
out of the way. If it's an ambulance, it's a
fire truck, it could be your house on fire, simple
as that. And I want to come back to the
to the to the crash. First of all, I think
that the trains. There better be a better system out
there for the trains. It's as simple as that. Let
(27:47):
me get one more in here before the break. Going
to go to John in Middleborough. Hey John, you're next
one nightside. Welcome night Dan. Thanks, let me be here absolutely,
So what's your thought on both of these dilemmas that
I have that I've talked about? One the vehicle on
the track, do you do you smash through the gate?
(28:08):
I smashed through the gate.
Speaker 6 (28:10):
Absolutely, drive through them. In many cases they're made to break.
I got it. I work for am tracked about fifteen
and a half years now. Okay, and information on the
crossing gate. Yes, the mechanism that control does not pull
them down.
Speaker 9 (28:29):
It allows them.
Speaker 6 (28:30):
To fall by grabbing. When they're down, they can easily
be lifted by hand and traffic control through or escape train.
Speaker 2 (28:41):
Sure, but if you don't have time, I mean, if
all of a sudden you see a train a couple
hundred yards away, don't try to get out of the
car and quietly walk over, you know, get through the
get off the track.
Speaker 6 (28:55):
Through the gate if you can, assuming that's not traffic
right on the other side of the gate.
Speaker 2 (29:00):
You got it.
Speaker 6 (29:00):
But although if you get the spctor on a cropping,
well whatever. We virtually every great crossing in the United
States has at least one blue signs with white letter
has a poultry numbers called it dispector or trains on
that line.
Speaker 2 (29:18):
Oh okay, the name of.
Speaker 6 (29:21):
The crossing and the number of the crossing. So they
called the fact there's a problem stop any approaching credits.
Speaker 2 (29:30):
That's great information. I did not know that.
Speaker 6 (29:33):
Yeah, take a look next time we go over acrossing.
Speaker 2 (29:36):
I will, I will, you know, I'll bettion. There'd be
some some people who'll be going over crossing tomorrow thinking
about John from Middleborough. Great advice, John. That's what I
love about my audience. There's always smarter people in my
audience than me, who knows more about a specific subject.
Thank you so much for joining us. That's very helpful,
very helpful.
Speaker 6 (29:56):
Thank you, Mek you soon, Thanks John, Thank you much.
Speaker 2 (30:00):
Got to take a break. One line at six one
seven two four ten thirty. Got one line at six
one seven ninety. We're coming right back if you want
to get in dial now because we have a guest
coming up at ten. I'm not carrying this over. This
has been a great topic. Let's keep it rolling. Coming
right back on Nightside.
Speaker 1 (30:16):
It's Nights Eye with Dan Ray on Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2 (30:23):
Back. We got great calls, Let's keep rolling. Going to
try to get them all in Ron and Stoat and
run next on nights.
Speaker 3 (30:29):
How How are you Dan? Longtime, no talk to uh.
I just want to say this about that accident yesterday.
First of all, I did a lot of train safety
programs at toy train shows. I'm a big train fanatic,
and there's the one thing I've always said to people,
especially kids, stop, look and listen I drive a truck,
(30:51):
and I know when you stop. I saw the films
on this. This guy went around the gates and he
was cited for doing. If you watch the films, he
deserves to be cited. He could have caused more than
a major accident. You don't forget it takes a long
time to stop a train, whether it's going thirty miles
an hour or fifty miles an hour, whether it's passenger
(31:14):
or a freight. He was wrong, and but we do
need to have four way gates at all crossings. You know,
he made a stupid decision. And like you said earlier,
it's the same type of people that won't pull over
for an ambulance or a fire engine or a police car.
And people have to be more aware of what they're
(31:36):
doing when they're driving.
Speaker 2 (31:38):
You bet you, you bet you. Safety for safety for
yourself and safety for everyone else, and safety right person
in the back of that ambulance because their life is
in jeopardy.
Speaker 3 (31:48):
Maybe that's right, and also safety for the engineer of
that train.
Speaker 2 (31:52):
Sure, absolutely absolutely, you know, run great points, great points.
I got back lines trying to get right.
Speaker 3 (32:00):
I wanted to get my two cents for it then
and it was.
Speaker 2 (32:02):
Something like you got more than two cents in call anytime. Okay,
thanks Ron, thank you for talk again. Thanks much. Good night.
Let me go to Paul and Weymouth. Paul you next
one nights. I go right ahead.
Speaker 9 (32:13):
Hey Dan, big fan, how are hey? Listen? That guy
who that guy who called from Weymouth. He says, you
can't shift on the track. Well, first of all, all
the trucks are automatic now, so there's there's no shifting.
I've been driving CDL forty five years and I've been
driving automatic for three years and I still reach for
the clutch.
Speaker 2 (32:35):
Old habits die hard. So what would have you done
if you were that on that track?
Speaker 9 (32:39):
Well, I don't know.
Speaker 5 (32:40):
I don't know.
Speaker 9 (32:41):
I saw it, I saw the video. I'd go through it,
but I don't know. If it's I don't know, if
I don't know, if he's stalled or what happened, I
don't know. But as far as shifting, look, they said
all the trucks are automatic, so there's only whatever. But
to get to your point about people not stopped and
the ambulances.
Speaker 6 (33:01):
You know that rule for.
Speaker 9 (33:04):
Slow down or pull over for a stalled vehicle on
the highway, Yes, sure. So I'm in my eighteen wheeler.
I pull over to the center lane to go buy
an accident or break down or whatever it may be.
And I go to pull I go to pull back
into the right lane, and there's somebody passing me. It
(33:25):
happened long. They just don't I don't know what they're thinking,
you know, So.
Speaker 2 (33:33):
They're thinking this smarter than you are. And one thing
I found out about long haul truck drivers is they
know what they're doing. Okay, so give them plenty of room.
Speaker 9 (33:43):
Well that's that's all I want to tell you. Was
like I go to pull over. When I go to
pull back, somebody's passing me on the right. It's like,
you got it, you got it.
Speaker 2 (33:52):
Everybody's looking at that little itch. Hey, Paul is always
thanks so much for the call. Appreciated. We'll talk again.
Speaker 9 (33:57):
Okay, Thanks Jim, thank you, Thank you.
Speaker 2 (34:00):
Be safe. Steve is in Rockland. Steve, you're next night's
IM gonna get you and at least a couple more
in Go ahead, Steve d Yes, sir, Dan, can you
hear me here? You perfectly go right ahead?
Speaker 10 (34:12):
Okay, thank you for taking my call.
Speaker 2 (34:15):
You're welcome.
Speaker 10 (34:16):
I just want to let you know here in Brockton.
I don't know who designed it, who's responsible, but we
have the train come to Brockton and we always have
the the the the the English.
Speaker 9 (34:29):
The gate.
Speaker 10 (34:30):
We don't have any. All we have is bridges and tunnels.
There are no gates in Brockton.
Speaker 2 (34:36):
You want to be safe, come on, good idea.
Speaker 10 (34:39):
Okay, I think they got to go around and everywhere
there's a gate, they should put a bridge or a tunnel.
Speaker 2 (34:47):
Okay, Well that's gonna take a lot of work, but
I think it's a great idea. It's certainly a lot
safer if that's not bad idea. Do you pull over
when an ambulance is coming up behind you're a fire
truck or a police officer?
Speaker 10 (34:57):
I hope we haven't referred to as the intersection from
hell right here and brogh when you give it from
when you first get off. Yeah, just just just just yesterday,
I heard the siren and there's thousands of cars. You
cannot tell where it's coming from. This it's not you
can't really blame the person in front of me, but
I heard them and I know where they usually come
down Pleasant Street.
Speaker 5 (35:18):
White pulled up to the right and.
Speaker 6 (35:19):
Nobody else did.
Speaker 2 (35:21):
It's crazy.
Speaker 10 (35:22):
So it has to do with your your ability, I
think to perceive where the siren noise is actually coming from.
I got your directional hearing.
Speaker 2 (35:30):
But still your instinct is to find a way to
get out of it. You got to pull into a
gas station, pull into a gas stage, if you got
to pull into a parking lot, clear the road, let
the let the emergency vehicle through.
Speaker 6 (35:41):
That should be the rule, idea.
Speaker 2 (35:43):
That's right. I got two more of you to thank you, Steve.
Let me go to Sandra in Carver. Sandra, I got
one you and one more. Go ahead, Sandra, Okay.
Speaker 8 (35:53):
Real quick. I just want to say when I was
a kid, they used manned men at the crosswalk. Every
crossing there was a guy. Today it's all computerized and
they're always sailing now. I was coming down Route fifty
eight to go to Rochester one night to dog training.
I usually look both ways. I don't know if I
(36:14):
did that night, but when I went to cross there
was no lights, no gate went down, total malfunction. I
look and there was a train, so I just kept
I just kept on moving, and when I got to
a phone, I called it in. They said, oh, Yeah,
we knew we have a problem there. Well, why wasn't
there a cruiser or somebody there? Yeah, to control the situation?
Speaker 2 (36:35):
How much? How close was it that the train missed you? Obviously?
Speaker 3 (36:39):
How well?
Speaker 8 (36:39):
It was was night and all I could see was
the great, big, huge light.
Speaker 7 (36:45):
You know. But I'm quit you had a.
Speaker 2 (36:47):
Guardian angel on your shoulder that night.
Speaker 8 (36:49):
Sandra, Right, Well, I think I do all the time anyway.
And also just to say this, I worked as a
nurse at night and for a while, for a three
year period, I also did the ambulance for the town. Yes,
I was an empty so I had some of that experience.
But most times people do pull over for you. But
I think lately, through whatever reason, everybody's getting cocky. They
(37:13):
don't pull.
Speaker 3 (37:14):
Over like they use it.
Speaker 2 (37:15):
I think a lot of people got the music on
the radio or the ear or the earphones on. They
don't hear it, or they're not paying attention, or they're
just dumb. They're absolutely dumb. I can use a stronger word,
but I'll just say dumb. And they think that that
for them to get to wherever they're going is the
most important thing in the world. Although somebody may be
dying an ambulance ten cars behind them, simple as that.
Speaker 8 (37:37):
Right, well, but anyway that.
Speaker 2 (37:40):
Could be too absolutely, thanks Andrew, talk to you soon.
Speaker 8 (37:44):
Okay, thank you, bye.
Speaker 2 (37:45):
Well, I won more before ten. It's Robert and Wellesley. Robert,
you're gonna wrap us up. I got about a minute,
go ahead, Robert.
Speaker 7 (37:52):
Okay, yeah, stop, look lessen. A lot of people at
the railroad crossing, A lot of people aren't aware of
that role. Also as you as you know, also emergency
lights on passenger cars tend to be underused. So to
prevent being rear ended, if you stop, look and listen
by the railroad track, I suggest putting on the emergency lights.
Speaker 10 (38:11):
Then.
Speaker 7 (38:11):
Also, if there's an emergency vehicle such as an ambulance approaching,
you don't know where they're coming from. I also we
suggest using emergency lights again, making people around you aware
that you're aware of the siren approaching, and you're making
to right.
Speaker 2 (38:26):
All great points. Robert. I used to tell my kids
when they went back to school, we do we take
a little walk a couple of days before going back
to school when they were in elementary school and things
like that, and I would say, look, listen and learn.
So that's kind of the same thing you're saying in
terms of driving.
Speaker 3 (38:42):
Right.
Speaker 2 (38:42):
Hey, Robert, thank you as always, I enjoy your calls.
Thanks very much, we'll talk again. Thank you so much.
Speaker 7 (38:48):
Thank you, good night, good night.
Speaker 2 (38:49):
Okay, we're done for this hour. That was a great hour.
I want to thank everyone, Maureen, Brunie, Dave, John, Ron, Paul, Steve,
Sandra and Robert. Great calls and thank you very much
for agreeing with me, and hopefully some of you have
heard what we said. Tonight when we come back, we're
going to talk with a really interesting guest about what's
going on in the stock market. This is a very
(39:12):
very smart guy and any questions you have he can
take him for you. We will be back right after
the ten o'clock news with a guest that will amaze you.
Back on Nightside,
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