Heavy road vehicles on railway level crossings - various incidents

[whole diary]

[ChrisB]

Why did the truck try & reverse? It was able to move forward....

[stuving]

There was a collision early this morning between a TGV^▸ (Train a Grande Vitesse) and a military transporter vehicle at a level crossing at Bully-les-Mines (Pas-de-Calais). This was not a high-speed line, of course, but the direct impact at speed on such a heavy vehicle destroyed the drivers cab, and killed the driver. The load on the transporter (a bridge, most likely self-deploying) was thrown into a garden.

The crossing (no. 96) has four half-barriers, and it is unclear at the moment how the vehicle got to be there with them down. It was last in a convoy of civilian vehicles returning from an exercise, and the driver has already been detained for a variety of manslaughter.

From the Luxembourg Times:

TGV collides with lorry, one dead and two in critical condition

Driver of lorry carrying military equipment has been arrested after fatal level-crossing smash

A collision between a TGV high-speed train and a lorry on Tuesday morning at a level crossing in Pas-de-Calais, northern France, killed the train driver, and left two people in critical condition and 11 with minor injuries, local authorities said.

The lorry driver has been taken into custody, AFP has learnt from a judicial source. The lorry was carrying military equipment, according to a spokesperson for the local prefecture.

An earlier provisional toll had put the number of injured at 27.

On Tuesday morning, large numbers of rescue workers and technical teams were deployed around the scene of the accident, AFP journalists observed, noting that the front of the train was badly damaged.

At around 07:00, the TGV travelling from Dunkirk to Paris, with 243 people on board, collided with a lorry at a level crossing in the town of Bully-les-Mines, between Béthune and Lens, the Pas-de-Calais prefecture said in a statement...

[ChrisB]

From the BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page)

One dead as high-speed train collides with lorry in France

[Image from here is not available to guests]

A train driver has died after his high-speed passenger train collided with a lorry carrying military equipment at a level crossing in France.

A number of injuries have also been reported following the incident, which took place on Tuesday morning between Béthune and Lens in the north-western Pas-de-Calais region.

Two people were critically injured while 11 others sustained minor injuries, French media reports.

The region's President Xavier Bertrand confirmed the death of the TGV^▸ (Train a Grande Vitesse) driver and described the accident as a "terrible tragedy".

"My thoughts are with his family, his loved ones and all the staff at who are mourning his loss," he wrote on X.

French Transport Minister Philippe Tabarot said he was heading to the scene along with the head of France's state-owned rail operator SNCF^▸ (Societe Nationale des Chemins de fer Francais - French National Railways).

Tabarot said the collision involved a heavy goods vehicle, while news site Franceinfo reported that it was a truck that had been transporting military equipment.

It said the incident occurred shortly before 07:00 local time (05:00 GMT), citing a local official.

The train had been travelling from Dunkirk to Paris.

The regional rail network, TER Hauts-de-France, said traffic between Béthune and Lens would be disrupted until mid-morning, with services on certain lines resuming gradually.

[.../cont.]

[Image from here is not available to guests]

[JohnM]

There was a collision early this morning between a TGV^▸ (Train a Grande Vitesse) and a military transporter vehicle at a level crossing at Bully-les-Mines (Pas-de-Calais). This was not a high-speed line, of course

Sorry - why "of course"?

[WSW Frome]

High speed lines are designed with no level crossings.

[stuving]

There was a collision early this morning between a TGV^▸ (Train a Grande Vitesse) and a military transporter vehicle at a level crossing at Bully-les-Mines (Pas-de-Calais). This was not a high-speed line, of course

Sorry - why "of course"?

There are no level crossings on high-speed lines, in the sense that applies in France.

[infoman]

at what speed is classed as a high speed line in France?

[stuving]

at what speed is classed as a high speed line in France?

They weren't - they were built from scratch as Lignes à Grande Vitesse, designed for at least 300 km/hr. The Ligne Nouvelle Provence Côte d’Azur is an exception where it upgrades the existing riviera line, but officially it's not being called an LGV^▸ (Lignes à Grande Vitesse (high speed rail lines) in France, or Large Goods Vehicle in the UK^▸ (United Kingdom), depending on context) (and work finally started only in December last year).

[stuving]

There was a thread about accidents involving very heavy vehicles at French level crossings, where the post I did not long ago would fit. But now that thread has been merged with several others here it's harder to see how it links with the previous ones, so I made a separate thread. I think this merged thread has taken merging a step too far.

Where there are threads with only a few posts each, with connected subjects, they can be hard to find - especially if they are scattered across a number of boards, then yes collecting them together makes sense. But here the merged thread is 23 pages long! That alone makes it hard to find something among lots of posts on diverse subjects. And long stretches of this thread are occupied by what was once a single thread, with perhaps an odd interloper inserted (based on date).

In a number of my threads, the common subject is happening in France, but there is another factor too for most of them (i.e. what happened). And, for the threads on these level crossing accidents, and on the train and railway failures on busy holidays, I think that other factor is more important. As a test, ask yourself if it is more likely that a post on something similar not in France would be added than one on a dissimilar event in France - I think it is.

There have now been two "dead train stuck for hours" events I would have posted about but didn't, as they would fit the original thread but don't seem to fit this one. What do you think, Chris?

[Chris from Nailsea]

Thank you for your very constructive comments and question, stuving.

I think I need to look again at this topic, to see how it could be split into a specific topic relating to HGV level crossing incidents, for example.

Please bear with me, while I work on that today.

CfN^▸ (Chris from Nailsea, an administrator on this forum).

[Chris from Nailsea]

With my apologies that it has taken rather longer than I expected, stuving, I have now made at least a start on splitting off posts relating specifically to this new topic heading and merging them here.  The original post headings have been retained, wherever possible.

There are still some relevant posts in the 'France' topic in particular, and on the 'Wider Picture Overseas' board generally, which I will continue to identify, move and merge with these here.

Thanks again for your constructive suggestion.  Regards, CfN^▸ (Chris from Nailsea, an administrator on this forum). 

[stuving]

With my apologies that it has taken rather longer than I expected, stuving, I have now made at least a start on splitting off posts relating specifically to this new topic heading and merging them here.  The original post headings have been retained, wherever possible.

There are still some relevant posts in the 'France' topic in particular, and on the 'Wider Picture Overseas' board generally, which I will continue to identify, move and merge with these here.

Thanks again for your constructive suggestion.  Regards, CfN^▸ (Chris from Nailsea, an administrator on this forum). 

Chris; thanks for all your efforts on this. I had no real idea what might be involved, or what was possible, hence I avoided asking for any specific action. But your rather generous answer to that question has, I imagine, given you a lot of work. So many thanks for that.

I see that you have rounded up the posts I did make; now all I have to do is remember what I was hoping to post but did not at the time ...