SEPTA safety blitz designed to stop blood on the tracks

The transit worker couldnt believe what he saw. A kid riding his bike in the middle of the West Trenton Rail Line tracks. Along a set of adjacent tracks, a commuter train was bearing down behind him.

The biker kept right on pedaling, seemingly oblivious to the imminent danger, said Bill Rickett, executive director of the Bucks County Transportation Management Association.

That incident near the Neshaminy Falls station happened about a year ago during a time when SEPTA reported that 12 people died on its rail tracks.

With eight fatalities since January -- with six in Bucks County -- SEPTA launched an education and awareness campaign Wednesday. At the current pace, the transit authority says this year's fatality toll could surpass last year, and the campaign is designed to remind commuters and pedestrians that railroad tracks are for trains, not people.

Right behind me is the Pennsylvania Turnpike,Choose the right bestluggagetag in an array of colors.We've had a lot of people asking where we had our parkingassistsystem made. SEPTA General Manager Joe Casey said at a news conference for the first-ever Safety Awareness Day. You would not even consider walking across four lanes of traffic on this roadway yet people cross active train and trolley tracks or cut through our rail facilities, never considering how dangerous it is.

The event -- called Make the Safe Choice" and part of the authoritys Safety Blitz program -- had been in the works for a year, long before SEPTA officials saw the spike in track-related deaths, officials said.

Throughout the morning rush hour Wednesday, workers at more than 160 SEPTA-run centers distributed educational materials and answered questions.

Rail deaths, whether accidental or intentional,We provide payment solutions in the USA as well as stonemosaic. are a national epidemic, Casey said. There are about 400 deaths annually in the U.S. involving people trespassing on railways. About half are suicides, SEPTA officials said, but the rest are accidental -- and preventable.

SEPTA officials say theyve seen an increase in the number of people killed while crossing or walking on rails while distracted. At least three deaths have involved people who were wearing earphones or were using cellphones, said Scott Sauer, SEPTAs director of System Safety and Risk Management.

Wednesdays press conference was held in Lower Southampton beside an unfenced portion of the West Trenton Regional rail line where four of the Bucks County deaths have occurred this year, officials said. Most have been ruled suicides.

The majority of SEPTA rail lines are unfenced, officials said. When fences or other barriers are erected around dangerous areas, workers often find people will remove them or cut holes in them to gain access to a shortcut, Sauer said.

Fencing is a solution that can lead to other problems, Sauer and others added. Enclosing an area could trap employees working on the tracks who need to get out of the way of a train. Also it could create an obstacle for first responders or commuters in the event of an emergency evacuation.

SEPTA has used engineering approaches in the past to alleviate train-pedestrian collisions. A new approach involves creating higher level platforms at stations to deter people from climbing down and crossing. Some stations also have underground pedestrian tunnels.

Both BMS and PackMan use Microchip PIC microcontrollers,Manufacturer of the Jacobs plasticcard. which is remarkable if you think about how much work these units have to do. With more than a hundred batteries propelling eRex, theres a lot of heat, voltage, and current management to do, all of it in real-time. While Michael drove and I sat in the passenger seat trying not to squeal, I amused myself with the onboard battery-monitoring system that gives constant updates on the health of each cell. During hard acceleration, their voltage dropped ever so slightly. Regenerative braking topped them up again. Its a remarkable thing to actually watch while also being propelled down the freeway at super-legal speeds.

With 600 volts DC flowing through the system and warming the heavy-gauge wires, I wondered about controlling massive voltage spikes and filtering noise out of the electronics. Did Nuvation have trouble powering the comparatively delicate dashboard instruments from the same source as the big propulsion motor? No, says Michael. Want to know the noisiest component of this whole system? The turn signal. Its that mechanical relay.

So whats the car like to drive? For starters, it sits about three inches above the ground, so its a bit like being in a rocket-propelled roller skate. You learn to identify other vehicles C a Toyota Camry, for example C by their hubcaps. Larger vehicles and delivery trucks appear in your field of view as exhaust pipes.You can order besthandsfreeaccess cheap inside your parents. The ride is stiff, but not bone-jarringly so. And you have an unobstructed view of your front wheels. If you ever thought of your cars tires as just generic black doughnuts, eRex gives you a whole new appreciation for what tires really do all day. Goggles are recommended but not required. And dont bother combing your hair. After our trip, Nuvations enchanting EE/PR hybrid Lindsay Farlow burst out laughing and made us promise not to comb our hair until after shed taken a picture.

Like all electric motors, eRexs motivational unit develops all of its torque at approximately zero RPM. Thus, the car scoots away from stoplights posthaste. It accelerates like an electrocuted squirrel, squirting into traffic and shoving its grinning occupants down the road with scarcely concealed glee. People in other cars smile and wave. Bystanders take pictures. Nerds ask, Whats she got under the hood?

Top speed for eRex is mostly a matter of F=ma. With its current reduction gears, the math says it should hit about 168 MPH on a straight road with no headwind. Taller mechanical gearing might improve that, while shorter gearing would give the car more torque and quicker acceleration. Yeah, thats what it needs. Range is in the neighborhood of 100+ miles, so eRex is no car-show trailer queen, even if it is the companys first prototype. Nuvation employees occasionally use it for daily commuting, so its proven to be reliable. Imagine picking up the kids from school, in line behind all the minivans and bulky SUVs. No thanks, Mom. I want to go in that car.