Dangers of trying to beat a train

Each year many people lost their lives or get seriously injured in accidents involving trains and quite often it's because someone got impatient and tried to beat a train instead of just waiting the few minutes.  Is it really worth your life for those few extra minutes?  How much of a hurry can you be in?  When the lights start flashing and the gates lower it means stop not speed up.  There are rules to the roads books at the DMV that will tell you to stop. If you do manage to meet it with a train you will not win.  They weight many many tons beyond that to your  tiny vehicle.  To a train your car is just a can it can easily crush.  This video I took a while back shows someone racing to beat the train passing in front of it when the gates were almost halfway down and the lights were flasing.  It's just an example and probably not the best one since there are many videos out there of car and train collisons as well as news stories.  This is hardly the first time I seen someone try to beat one but it is the first time i got one on film.  I just hope one day I don't catch some person meet their end doing this.  Like I asked is a few minutes really worth your life?  If hit you will not win.  If by chance you survive your car or truck will be trashed.  If you got passengers in the car why put their lives at risk for the few minutes you want to shave off?  I don't get the mentality of drivers who think  trying to beat a train will really make in the long run.  It's only a few minutes not  like you will be sitting there for hours. Also think about the crews  in these trains that witness this stuff daily which causes them stress and grief if they actually hit someone. Do people think they enjoy this crap?  The ones  that do kill someone have to live with it even though it isn't their fault that someone tried to play chicken and lost.  Think about them too.  It's just selfish to try to beat a train in the long run.  If you're so concerned about making time then leave earlier to take in consideration of such things like traffic, trains and construction.  Life is more important than those one to ten minutes depending on the size of the train and it's speed.  Even a slow train can mess one up if they hit you so just don't.  Ask yourself this if you're one of the people that tries to beat trains do you want to live another day?

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