What Causes Railroad Accidents | Railroad Crossing Safety Tips ~ What Causes

how to avoid railroad accidents

Although traveling and transporting goods through train are considered as convenient way for many years, they start to begin threatening lately. Their speed has increased significantly, that can possibly cause the train to derail out of its track. Most of the time the causes of railroad accidents are rooting from human error. The officer that forgot to close the gate, and the drivers who do not notice the sign of train that will pass by or even those who break through the closed gate. Other causes of railroad accidents are bridge collapse and explosions on boards. Over all causes, the most happened railroad accident we heard in news media is train hitting a car. Have you ever experienced or seen the car engine dies in the middle of the railroad ?

Surely this is the tense and dangerous conditions. Many times we heard the case of a car accident that was hit by a train while crossing railroad. Mostly happen because the car engine dies suddenly right in the middle of railroad tracks.

Why did it happen ?

Friction between the wheels of the train to the railroad tracks is the cause.

According to Dr. Ir. Djoko Sungkono, Head of the Mechanical Engineering Laboratory of Motor Fuels from the Surabaya Institute of Technology (ITS), while the wheels rubbing against the railroad tracks, then there is impedance (electrical resistance) so that the car engine dies and would not restart.

Impedance effect is not a problem for machines that live, but for the dead engine will usually be affected.

Impedance effects mainly occurred in gasoline-fueled cars, though sometimes diesel vehicles are also affected.

In gasoline-fueled vehicles, the starter driven by a dynamo (magneto ignition) that generates a magnetic field to move the car further.

It is this process that was prevented by impedance when it is on rails.

Let's look for more detail:
If the rail will be bypassed by trains, then the rail will experience vibrations generated from trains, the closer the train, the greater the frequency of vibration experienced by rail. The rail has an electric charge, the electric charges will also vibrate due to the vibrations produced by the train from such a distance that the electric charge on the rails will flow more quickly and will form a magnetic field around the rail. The closer the train, the greater the vibration, it means the greater magnetic field produced.
Every car has a component named magneto ignition, this magneto ignition working principle is using the principle of magnetic field. If the magnetic field on the car's magneto ignition disturbed by the greater magnetic field of rail, then the dynamo of magneto ignition can not spin. As the result, the car engine will die (most of the time) and can not restart.

Impedance effects can occur even though the trains still 1 miles away from where the car stalled on the tracks.

Railroad Crossing Safety Tips

Well, how to overcome this ?
If you experience it, the first thing that you do is honk. Honk while ignite your car, because it can cut off the electricity that is created from the friction of the wheels with the rails so that it will give you the possibility for turning on the engine. But, if this method is unsuccessful, get out of the car and ask for help to push the car to get out of the rails.
But if there is no chance to save the car, of course, life safety is the first thing that should be in your mind.

So be careful when crossing the railroad tracks and do not break through the closed gate!!!