A family trying to cross a railroad crossing in their friend’s borrowed SUV narrowly escaped a great tragedy. The crossing is outfitted with a gate, but the gate was up and not functioning properly when they began crossing. The gate came down as they were on top of the tracks, blocking them in. They were faced with a decision: try to run, or try to back up and break the gate?
Fortunately, they made the right choice by getting out of the vehicle and fleeing. It is all too common for crossing malfunctions of this sort to happen and for the driver of the motor vehicle to have no viable options for escape. In this case, at least, the family escaped within seconds of a deadly impact. No one was hurt or killed in the collision.
