This driver in Dade County was mere seconds away from getting hit by a Brightline train.
Video posted to the @OnlyInDade Instagram account submitted by Instagram user @SneakkyKlean shows the harebrained moment a driver in a Nissan Altima (of course,) tried to sneak past railroad crossing arms with a Brightline high speed rail train fast approaching.
Thankfully, the driver decided not to gun it and hit reverse.
But, with the railroad crossing arms now smacking the top of his roof, the unlucky passenger, a young boy, had to go out to hold the RR crossing arms up.
Check out the video for yourself below and, just in case that video’s down, we’ve got a mirror for you linked here.
The incident occurred near the intersection of 22 NE 20th St. in Miami, FL (Exact location on Google Maps linked here.)
As this screenshot of that location shows, there’s a thick, white line denoting where cars are supposed to stop if there are cars stopped on the other side or railroad crossing arms are beginning to lower.
While it looks like they could’ve just continued going over the other set of railroad tracks and around the already lowered RR crossing arms, it looks like, in a moment of panic, she decided to undo her mistake.
Perhaps she thought that, if police were watching, they wouldn’t then immediately pull her over on the other side?
Good thing she had a passenger riding shotgun who could lift those RR crossing arms because who knows how the situation would’ve played out if she panicked, again, and just sat there.
The Brightline train is an honest-to-goodness high speed rail. Although its operational speed is around 80 MPH, at full tilt, operators can crank up the speed up to 125 MPH.
It looks like the Brightline conductor slowed considerably at that crossing to avoid what could’ve been a nasty collision.
“Kid never getting in that Nissan with Abuelita ever again,” @Marcialsrt hilariously commented.
“The stupidity level never ceases to amaze me,” @barmaster_ commented.
“If only there was a warning system in place to prevent close calls like this…let’s discuss solutions,” @GPCarlo sarcastically typed out.
In Florida, failure to obey railroad crossing arms is punishable by a $199 fine before all the fees and 4 points on your driving record.
Being clueless around other cars is one thing, but, playing games with trains around crossings is just plain stupid.
The record between trains and cars is 1M+ to 0.
