I saw an ambulance delayed by a MAX train
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Earlier this afternoon, I was driving south on SW 185th Avenue, toward the part of Washington County where you are far more likely to see Luis Palau bumper stickers and yellow ribbons on the rear of vehicles than “Think Globally, Act Locally” entreaties.
I hear a MetroWest ambulance headed north. But just a few hundred feet before the MAX tracks, the crossing gates go down and a light rail train rambles thru. And the ambulance had to stop.
Although the time between initial slowdown and resumption of full speed could not have been any more than 45 seconds, sometimes that brief interval can be the dividing line between successful medical intervention and not.
Once traffic resumed, I found myself hoping that the delay was not harmful, and that the help that was so urgently being dispatched was able to be rendered.
At least on some parts of the MAX system, the railroad crossings are equipped with the Opticom system which is the same system to used pre-empt traffic lights. Emergency vehicles activate the system as they approach. Out in Hillsboro last year, a fire engine activated the system, the operator of the MAX train failed to stop for the signal and broadsided the fire engine.
It makes one wonder if the ambulance arrived too late to activate the system, or if that particular crossing doesn’t have it installed…
With or without Opticom… if it’s reached a certain point, the gates are going to drop regardless.
Personally I’d rather it be delayed than 50 people on the MAX get injured by the train trying to stop or the Ambulance getting smashed.
Again, emergency service is one of those things, that if the transit was 100% free market, it could be VERY much faster than it is.