Story Archive

Important Call

“The [railroad gates] were down, and I thought he was going to stop,” said a witness watching a bicyclist in Santa Rosa, Calif., as she was stopped at a railroad crossing. “Ding, ding, ding, and I hear the train. And the next thing I see is him rolling under the train, and his bicycle is under the front of the train.” The unnamed 19-year-old bicyclist had been chatting on his cell phone during the afternoon commute, and rode onto the tracks right in front of a “SMART” train — a commuter train run by Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit. The impact threw him 20-30 feet, but amazingly he was not killed. “Safety really is our top priority,” said SMART spokeswoman Jeanne Mariani-Belding. “We really are asking people to please be alert and aware near all tracks and trains and avoid distractions.” (RC/Santa Rosa Press-Democrat) ...You need more than a SMART train when dealing with DUMB cyclists.