Pecos, TX: If a RR Crossing is Blocked, Look for the Blue Placard and UP Depot

Depot: (Satellite)

Craig Hensley Photography posted five photos with the comment:

Sad news from Pecos, Texas as a Union Pacific intermodal train stuck a tractor trailer carrying heavy equipement that was stuck on grade crossing. The engineer and conductor were both tragically killed in the subsequent derailment that sent the lead unit off the ground and onto its side. This is a devastating derailement and sadly one that could've been prevented. According to the reports, the truck was stuck on the crossing for quite a while and there was no phone call made to alert the railroad.

PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT

To all my followers, if you ever get stuck on the tracks or witness something like this, please take action! 

Every railroad crossing should have a blue placard located on the crossing signal (see attached pictures) and a phone number to dial in case of an emergency. Do not dial 911 first to alert the railroad, the dispatcher will likely contact local PD for you. Call the number on the placard and this will take you directly to that railroads dispatcher, you can give them ID number of the crossing, and alert them of problem. The dispatcher could've radiod the train and had them come to a stop. One phone call could've saved 2 lives instead of a tragedy right before the holidays.

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Richard Ochoa: That's the lead locomotive, no cab left.

[It looks like the load was a long pressure vessel. The kind that is used in oil refineries. I can't believe that the truck driver of oversized loads was not trained to call the emergency number. And given that almost everyone in the area had a phone in their pocket, including the police, this should not have happened.]

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My experience is that the placard is only on one side of the tracks. So if you can't find it on your own side, look for it on the other side. When I called in to report gates that were staying down even though there were no trains, I was on the side of the tracks that had the placard. If I had been on the other side, I would have had to illegally cross the tracks to report that no one could legally cross the tracks. (All the gates in the downtown area went down at the same time. That was another indication that something was wrong and that the railroad needed to fix it. And that problem precluded the option of walking to another crossing to get across the tracks.)

The depot is now the Area Chamber of Commerce.

Street View, Aug 2014

Judging by the second photo, the left wall of the building got destroyed. I hope no one was in those offices.

Street View, Feb 2013