The American freight rail industry is an absolute colossus: Nearly 140,000 miles of track nationwide, more than 19.3 billion tons in goods moved in 2020, a major employer of military veterans as about 1/6th of the hundreds of thousands of railroad workers are former service members, just to name a few of the impressive facts and figures according to the Association of American Railroads.
An Indianapolis man on Saturday night got just a small taste of the raw power of this economic engine – one that operates with four times the energy efficiency than the trucking industry – when he tried to drive around a crossing gate. Per WTHR, the unidentified man was driving an Audi sedan when the full force of America’s railroading industry came barreling down the track, dragging the vehicle at least 75 feet before tossing it aside like a toy. The sheer mass of the industry required this tiny cog in its machine a mile to come to a halt after one of its proud workers hit the brakes.
“Those crossing guards are there for a reason. It’s not worth it to beat a train by three minutes,” said Indianapolis Metro PD Captain John Arvin, speaking to the titanic power of US freight rail.