Trucks and trains may at various times be competitors and partners in the supply chain, but when the two square off face-to-face at a level crossing, there's no doubt who will emerge victorious.


There's a video currently making the email rounds that will make you sit up and take notice. It appears to have been filmed from the engineer's perch in a diesel locomotive approaching a busy and unguarded level crossing somewhere in Mexico.

I sometimes wonder how trucks and trains manage to collide, given the size of the things and the noise they usually make approaching a crossing. I can almost understand why a driver would try to rush a train across the tracks, especially when the train is long and slow moving. Who wants to sit and wait for 15 minutes while the damned thing creeps by if there's a comfortable margin to cross?

The train in the video isn't exactly creeping along the track, and the whistle howls its urgent warning for sometime before it reaches the crossing, but still, they come. Cars and trucks trying to squeeze across before the road is blocked.

Check this video out and imagine yourself in the engineer's shoes. I think this situation probably gave way to what's called a "check your laundry" moment.