Train crushes car attempting at crossing in Tokyo: Tobu Tojo Line

[gmat]

 

Train crushes car attempting at crossing in Tokyo. Tobu Tojo Line at an Itabashi ward crossing.

 

http://www.tokyoreporter.com/2017/10/26/train-crushes-car-attempting-to-closing-crossing-in-tokyo/

 

Grant

[Suica]

Driving onto a crossing when you surely can't make it to the other side, huh? I've seen people do that here as well.

I'm sure Tobu will prepare a nice, hefty damage claim for that driver. Well deserved.

[cteno4]

I'm glad we have few crossings around here as folks get mad enough if you leave an car intersection clear in traffic! I watched a poor ambulance trying to get thru a blocked box intersection the other day. Folks could have bailed by turning off their path to get out of the stalled intersection but none tried to do anything at all... sort of wish it was the twilight zone and they were all of a sudden swapped from being in their car blocking the intersection to being the patient in the ambulance for a short bit... where is rod when you need him, o that's right he's in the zone.

 

The one crossing near here in a high traffic area has fast trains and I'm always startled how fast the trains appear. folks get sooooo twitchy and irritated waiting I keep thinking someday I'm going to witness someone blocking the tracks when a train comes or try to run the barrier...

 

jeff

[railsquid]

Video here:

 

http://www.excite.co.jp/News/society_g/20171025/Tbs_news_109103.html

Pictures:

http://www.sankei.com/affairs/photos/171025/afr1710250033-p5.html

 

Crossing location here: https://goo.gl/maps/tcYzGMQ3FUM2

 

Looking at the road, it runs parallel to the line, it's thinkable the driver (in his 60s, apparently) accidentally swerved left off the road (or came out of the small road to the east of the crossing), crashing through the barriers (which are lightweight and easy to push aside) and ended up partly or entirely on the track; as the occupants of the car were able to get out, presumably the collision didn't occur straight away (but obviously there wasn't enough time for the train to stop).

Edited October 26, 2017 by railsquid
add moar speculation

[velotrain]

9 minutes ago, railsquid said:

Looking at the road, it runs parallel to the line, it's thinkable the driver (in his 60s, apparently) accidentally swerved left off the road, crashing through the barriers (which are lightweight and easy to push aside) and ended up partly or entirely on the track;

 

Based on the guy's statement and a witness, it wasn't accidental but lack of thinking. Otherwise - he might have noticed the cars backed up ahead before entering a crossing with the gate 70% closed.

 

"Authorities said the male driver was apparently attempting to drive through the crossing. “I was trapped inside the crossing because there were cars backed up ahead, and things started looking bad after the train started coming so I thought I’d better run.”

A witness told TV Asahi (Oct. 25), “A vehicle drove in when the crossing was about 70 percent closed."

[railsquid]

Doh, brain was not switched on (in my defence it was late), missed that.

 

Possibly an idiot for driving onto the crossing when it wasn't clear he could exit; moreover the sensors inside the crossing should have registered the presence of a vehicle; I wonder what really happened.

[velotrain]

Possibly . . . . ?  The gates were almost all the way down after all.

 

Do the sensors in the crossing just alert approaching trains, or can they also trigger emergency braking?

[railsquid]

That's what I'd presume, without being an actual expert, though oddly looking at the crossing in question I don't see any recognisable sensors, which may mean a) not all crossings are fitted with them, b) they're not visible in street view, c) there's some mechanism unknown to me or d) I have no idea what I'm talking about (quite likely).

 

FWIW I'd expect so see some little poles like the 3 in this view: https://goo.gl/maps/PYYeB9v4J2z dotted around between the tracks.

[katoftw]

There is no occupancy sensors.

 

All I driver and do when a car is in the wrong place is put on the emergency brakes and hope for the best.

 

Not much you can do when someone tries to rush the boom gates and doesn't look out the other side of the crossing before doing so.

[gmat]

Most lines have those sensors. I don't think that the Setagaya Line has them. I checked crossings at Sangenjaya,  Nishitasaido and Setagaya Stations and I didn't see any. But there appeared to be one at the Kamimachi Station. 

I used to take detail photos when I first started but 3 HD failures have removed all photos from before Feb. 2015. The sensors are paired and cover the crossing in an X pattern. Railsquid's second photo of a crossing actually shows 7 sensors and I think that there might be an eighth not shown on the right side of the photo. 

If the driver started when the pole was 70% down, there might not be enough time for the driver to react if a signal were sent to the cab. If it were to only start a red signal flashing before the crossing, there would be even less time to react. 

Other more knowledgeable persons can provide better details. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Setagaya #3 crossing, Kamimachi Station.

 

 

 

Grant

Edited October 27, 2017 by gmat

[kvp]

In the UK, it was normal to only allow a train to leave the previous station when all crossings were locked up to the next station. In more modern times it's usually enough to require locked crossings for the block signal to clear. On some systems, especially in the continental Europe, the block occupancy of the current block triggers the crossing, so the train is already in the block when the gates starts to go down. This could result in a car getting caught with no way for the train driver to stop. In Japan, this latter model was extended with crossing sensors and signals to signal the driver if a crossing is fouled. This might or might not be enough for the train to stop, depending on the visibility of the signal and the speed and brakes of the train.

 

Imho the locked and clear block signalling way is the safest as the trains always have enough space to stop at a block signal set to danger, regardless if it's a car or a train that is in front of them. This way the only way to foul a crossing while a train is approaching it is to crash across the barriers. The sideeffect of this solution is that gate downtime is approximately double than with the just in time system as gates close two blocks ahead and not just one. This could easily result in 100% closed crossings if the line's traffic is high enough with the single block system to have less than 50% of the time open crossings. (imho having crossings that are mostly closed is a good indication that non level crossings are needed)

[velotrain]

5 hours ago, kvp said:

 On some systems, especially in the continental Europe, the block occupancy of the current block triggers the crossing, so the train is already in the block when the gates starts to go down. 

 

This (hopefully) implies that there is some standard minimal distance between the beginning of a block and the first crossing within it?

 

[kvp]

6 hours ago, velotrain said:

 

This (hopefully) implies that there is some standard minimal distance between the beginning of a block and the first crossing within it?

 

Yes or the crossing might get activated by the adjacent block too. It's calculated based on the maximal allowed speed on the line and the distance of the crossing from the nearer end of the block. It's also common to split larger blocks into multiple detection zones, so the crossing gets opened as soon as the train clears it. This might cause problems with wrong way running if a doubletrack line is not signalled for both directions on both tracks, so in that case the trains have to crawl into the open crossings by proceed on sight and the gates drop when the first wheel enters. For lines that are signalled for both directions, the two activating detection sub blocks out of three are selected based on the selected running direction. This could get quite complicated with longer signal blocks and lots of crossings. Some more modern systems try to calculate in the allowed top speed of the train and its braking distance instead of using the top speed of the line. This reduces closed time for slower trains when works correctly.

[Sacto1985]

YouTube member azumatakeshi took a short video of Tobu 10000 Series unit 11031 (the trainset involved in the accident) at Tobu's service yard:

 

 

[Welshbloke]

The following occured a few years ago in Wales:

 

Someone decided to drive onto the crossing when the exit wasn't clear just as the lights began flashing. The inevitable happened, the barriers lowered and they started panicking...much to the amusement of the train crew who at that time were required to stop before the crossing and trigger the lights/barriers with a control box at the lineside, so were watching from their stationary train!

 

[nah00]

I look at the crossing for an interurban line in Japan and all the safety signals and signs around it and then I'm reminded of a friend who lived by the light rail system here in Pittsburgh where at a crossing with a blind corner the crossing lights and gates didn't work about 75% of the time and every call to Port Authority Transit about it was met with a 'oh we're working on that'....