Caltrain Meets an RV Traditional Cache
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An RV on the way to this RV park was struck by a Caltrain going over 70 MPH just south of here at Palm Avenue.
The elderly driver ignored the RV park recommended directions to take 101 to Cochrane to Monterey. Instead he got hung up when he tried to drive a long and low RV over the high railroad tracks at Palm and Monterey.
From the Morgan Hill Times:
Nov 25, 2009
Into every motorist's life, there comes a moment when the paved road turns unexpectedly to dirt, streetlights give way to starlight, and regardless of where you thought you were going, where you have arrived is the middle of nowhere.
For Roger Scott, that moment came as darkness fell Wednesday, as he was nosing his 28-foot Winnebago over a railroad crossing on Palm Avenue in Morgan Hill, not far from the Coyote Creek Golf Club. The only direction that made sense to Scott at the time was to go back the way he came, but because he was towing a 15-foot SUV, backing up was not an option.
Then Scott, 88, and Betty Nelson, his 81-year-old girlfriend, heard metal grinding on metal and felt their RV suddenly shudder to a stop. Scott stood on the tracks trying to see what had beached his vehicle. "That's when I saw the headlight of a train coming," he said.
Nelson had dialed 911 from the passenger's seat of the RV while Scott poked around outside, but she spent several minutes explaining how they had arrived at their current predicament. At least five minutes went by before Nelson mentioned she was marooned on train tracks in a 43-foot metal barricade.
"The 911 lady kept saying 'What's the emergency?' " Scott explained later. "That went on for a little while. Finally, she said, 'Get out of the motor home and get way away from the tracks.' "
Scott retreated from the tracks, but Nelson was not inclined to abandon ship so easily and stood on the tracks talking to a man who had stopped to see if anything was wrong.
"I kept yelling at her to get off the tracks and get back with me," Scott said. "And she finally did."
By that time, the engineer of Caltrain's No. 270 train — which had pulled out of San Jose's Diridon Station at 6:16 p.m., bound for Gilroy — was frantically blowing the horn from the locomotive of the million-pound train. The maximum speed the train is allowed to travel on that portion of the old Union Pacific tracks is 79 mph, and it was probably doing close to that as it plowed into the Winnebago.
"As I heard the thing tooting and coming down the road, I realized it was going to be a huge wreck," Nelson said. "I thought, 'I don't need to see this.' I was holding onto Roger looking the other way when it hit."
The collision sounded like a bomb detonating and brought farmworkers running from nearby fields. "It was like something you'd see in the movies," Scott said. The couple was standing 150 yards clear of the explosion and were not struck by flying debris.
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Do not cross the fence or enter the RV park.
Not recommended at night since flashlights could disturb local residents.
Congratulations to Geokashers for the FTF !!!
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