A 63-year-old Pennsylvania man has been charged with negligent driving and other offense following a morning collision in Westminster involving the tractor-trailer he was operating and an oncoming train. There were no reported injuries.
Sheriff’s deputies have charged Thomas E. Taylor, of Biglerville, PA, with negligent driving, failing to stop at a railroad crossing and other driver-related offenses.
Hahn Road between Route 27 and Woodward Road has been reopened after having been closed until 3 p.m. on Monday.
Taylor's vehicle, a 2003 Mack Tractor pulling a 53-foot trailer, was traveling east along Hahn Road just before 11 a.m., when it crossed the tracks into the path of an oncoming train that was traveling north, according to police reports. The train rammed the back of the trailer, crushing the backside of the nearly empty container and pushing it from the tracks before stopping approximately 300 feet down the track.
Police say alcohol is not considered to be a factor in the collision.
The investigation revealed that the flashing railroad crossing signals were operating at the time of the collision, and that the train’s engineer had sounded the train’s whistle prior to the crossing, the police press release stated.
Taylor has also been charged with failing to keep his driver log book current and with having no records of his vehicle operations for the past seven days. According to the release, Taylor has been released on citations pending trial.
Members of the Maryland State Police, Maryland State Highway Administration, and Carroll County Public Works Department worked to redirect traffic during the investigation and clean-up.
Anyone with information about the accident, or who may have witnessed the collision, is asked to contact Deputy Brandon Holland of the Carroll County Sheriff’s Office at 410-386-2900, or bholland@ccg.carr.org.
The trains that come thru here are VERY short (esp compared with the lengths at other areas) and the horn is loud enough to hear when the train is visible. The driver should have seen AND heard the train and should NOT have attempted to try to beat it.
"The conductor said that they were, so we're still in that early stage of investigating to see if they were working," Yazoo City Police Maj. Larry Davis said. So in the Yazoo City case, there had not even been a determination of fault at the time this article was written because the conductor's side of the story is just one part of the investigation. You seem to be insinuating that based on this report in Mississippi, that in the Carroll County case all the deputy did was ask the conductor if the gate was working as an excuse to ticket the semi driver. The story says no such thing. Unless you have inside information, you don't even know if the conductor in the Westminster case said the gates were down, you don't know if there were other witnesses to the crash and you don't know if they conducted a test of the gate. So again, I ask,what is the basis for your venom against the railroad and our local law enforcement based on the facts presented in this story in the WESTMINSTER case, NOT the Yazoo City case?
This particular RR crossing is THE most heavily marked one in all of Westminster, so far as I can tell. Not too long ago, a tractor trailer blocked traffic there for quite a while as he maneuvered his rig trying to make a U turn. Talk about NCS, LOLOL! I was in the traffic that was backed up in all directions and I just sat there and LMAO ;) That was a 'train wreck' (pun intended) just waiting to happen, had a train come along. Most tractor trailers at this location are either coming or going to Random House. The railroads monitor all train crossing locations at all times. I have no doubt that they can prove everything was working at the time. Plus the driver's log books weren't up to date...that's a huge no-no.
What we need are people to just stop for 2 to 3 minutes and let the train go by. Ya know how a 10 mph train hits a tractor trailer? The tractor trailer drivers believes he can beat it.
A track that runs faster trains WOULD have gates. I dont see any correlation between that and what happened here. Its very simple. This tractor trailer driver attempted to beat a train, when he should have stopped and got hit. Its VERY simple....you hear a train layin on his horn, you stop and wait for it to pass. That would solve these problems. Its obvious this driver didnt do that.
Here is what I have learned so far about BP in this virtual discussion. First, he MUST get in the last word. No matter what anyone else says, he will have to have the last post on this thread. He just can't help himself. Second, he thinks all rail crossing equipment is junk. (Except for one post where he said the equipment at the intersection in questioin is more expensive than needed and should be placed at a busier crossing with faster trains. But he still thinks this accident was the railroad's fault.) Third, cops don't know how to handle investigations of train vs.motor vehicle accidents. Fouth, the media fails to properly report on said accidents. In another post, he listed a bunch of equipment and/or health issues that could have caused the truck to be on the tracks, but he still insists the railroad is at fault. I suspect we will be wasting our electronic breath responding to any of his susequent posts. I don't know, maybe he lost a loved one in a train accident, in which case I do feel bad, but that doesnt mean all crossings are bad, all engineers lie, all cops do crappy investigations and all reporters are idiots. BP, for the last time, the discussion is about THIS crash at THIS crossing in THIS community. Not one in Mississippi on a crossing that is much different than ours, and not about rail crossings in general. There has been NOTHING coming out of this that indicates the engineer or the crossing equipment failed or the cops messed up....
My bf traveled from 30 from Rt 91 all the way north today and saw no gates. So either youre misinformed or relying on some report on the internet. Either way, you cant be local to this area.