Mark Brader wrote:
Louis Krupp writes:

For what it's worth, emergency vehicle drivers here in the Wild, Wild
West always defer to three things: School buses with lights flashing,
school zones with lights, and trains. Kids can't be expected to know
what the lights and siren are all about, and trains can't be expected to
stop in time, so we don't mess with them.

See the "stuff happens" analysis of one accident:

http://www.co.washington.or.us/sheri...a/max_cart.htm


Bad choice of example. Although the report uses the word "train",
in British parlance Portland's MAX would be a tram system. Big
trams, like in Nottingham, and they do go fast when off the public
streets, but they're not like real trains. The "stop signal" that
the "train" passed in that report would be an ordinary traffic light.

MAX sounds like what we call "light rail" south of the border. An
ambulance hit one of those in Denver a while ago; for an account of
that (and a diatribe about light rail in general), see:

http://i2i.org/article.aspx?ID=1106

For a "better" example of fire engine vs. train:

http://www.nbc5i.com/news/5659555/detail.html

(I haven't been in Nottingham since long before the Tram.)

Louis