Electric & Autonomous Trucks Won’t Fix This, But YOU Can! – CleanTechnica

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With all of the crazy new year’s news (electric truck terrorism is a thing now apparently), a news story from just a couple of weeks ago feels like ancient news. It’s almost like that Pecos, Texas train derailment happened last year or something! (oh, wait…)

Some online commenters were saying that autonomous trucks would fix this problem. That may be true (someday), but we have to keep in mind that autonomous vehicles are only as good as their data. Planning a good route that keeps truck loads from getting hung up on railroad tracks is essential, but the same maps humans rely on can be wrong and when construction changes the road situation around the track, maps recommending good crossings can become outdated.

Electric trucks might be a little better at pulling heavy loads out of a bind with all of that torque, but there are ways that vehicles can get hung up that no amount of torque can fix.

This unofficial PSA announcement from YouTube shares an even easier way to prevent loss of life when things like this happen, regardless of whether a human drove an ICE or a robot drove an EV into this predicament:

An important thing to keep in mind is that the truck was hung up on the tracks for around 45 minutes! You’d think that someone, whether it be the truck driver or the police dispatcher, would have let the railroad know that there was a dangerously large item stuck on the tracks. But, nobody got around to giving the railroad sufficient warning to get the train stopped in time.

Sadly, this would have been a very easy thing to do. Every railroad crossing has small signs with a phone number on it that anybody can call. You don’t have to be a truck driver, a police officer, or the grand poobah of the Loyal Order of the Water Buffaloes to call that number. If you think there’s a safety problem, you (yes, YOU!) can call the number and give the railroad company a heads up. They’d rather you err on the side of caution and report something that doesn’t turn out to be a problem than have something big get ignored.

There’s also a set of numbers and letters on the sign you can give the railroad dispatcher to identify the crossing. You don’t have to know where you are, what town you’re in, or what the nearest cross street is. You could be so confused that you think you’re at the corner of Walk and Don’t Walk streets, and the dispatcher can still use the numbers to get the right trains stopped in time.

Trains are one of the cleanest and most energy efficient ways to move goods. The rails present a lot less rolling resistance, allowing a relatively small amount of fuel to move insane amounts of cargo. On average, a train can move a ton of cargo 500 miles burning only a gallon of diesel! That makes trains even more efficient than EVs. To keep them going, we all need to do our part for safety, and it only takes one phone call from the right person at the right time.

Featured image: a screenshot from the embedded video (fair use).