A Train In Texas Plows Through A Windmill Blade That Was Straddling The Railroad Crossing

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Remember back in drivers education, you were taught to not never stop on railroad tracks? Well, here's video of why you need to remember that.

Sunday evening in Luling, TX (east of San Antonio) a train had a violent collision with a windmill blade for a wind turbine. According to KXAN, there were no injuries reported, but it looks to be total loss for the wind turbine blade though.

There is video from both sides of the tracks and judging from the video by Twitter user PermianLandman, the truck looked to have the proper wide load escort, but seemed to get stuck when making the 90 degree turn because it couldn't clear the railroad crossing signal pole and crossing arms on the corner. In the video you can see the crossing arms begin to lower on to the windmill blade and that means a train is coming.

As the train approaches you can hear the whistle from the train being blown warning that its coming and it's not going to be able to stop in time. Then in the video you can see the escort vehicle move out of the way to allow the truck to attempt to get out of the way, but as you can judge from the title of this article, it's way too late at this time.

From the video of KXAN, Texas State Troopers were already on scene at the intersection.

This is a reminder that those PSA's that we air on the station are no joke and this is why we air them. When you approach a railroad crossing, you should stop and look both ways. When the lights are flashing you should definitely stop. When the crossing gates are down, you should never go around them for any reason.

It usually takes a train about a mile to come to a complete stop. They can't stop like you can in your vehicle. Here's one more important reminder, if you're at a crossing and there are two sets of tracks with just warning lights, don't assume it's safe to cross after one train passes, look both ways and make sure that another train is not coming from the opposite direction on the other set of tracks.