Yeah, looking at some of those compilation videos, it seems to mostly boil down to three mistakes: 1) misjudging the speed of the oncoming train. 2) Being distracted by a train on another track (this even goes for some of the more idiotic “trainspotters/railfans” in the video). 3) Purposeful daredeviling. It actually does not seem all that difficult to fall into trap #2 if you don’t mentally prepare yourself for that possibility, since you’re going to be saturated with sensory input from the train you’re concentrating on, you’re not really hearing the other train coming from the other direction as an additional train to be wary of.
If I ever get written about in the newspaper, I hope the article does not say anywhere: “Police officers found the man’s toes.”
I don’t think falling into mistake #2 above is particularly difficult to imagine. With all the sensory input from the train you’re concentrating on saturating your senses, I’d think it’s pretty easy not to hear the horns and rumbling from the second oncoming train as being a separate sensory input.
Also, if you’re around trains with any frequency, it’s easy to become completely jaded to that sound. I lived most my life underneath an airport flight path. I couldn’t tell you on which days the planes have been flying over or approaching the airport from another direction, as I’ve become so used to it as being background noise. It just gets filtered out unless I consciously think about it.
Such as…
I used to wonder about that. I mean, I can’t think of a more inhospitable place to take a nap. What isn’t cold, hard, steel is splintery, creosoted wood or sharp, pointy rock and it’s all covered with a layer of filmed over grease or diesel droppings. Then a friend said, “Drunks,” They’re following the tracks home because it’s a known path not requiring any decisions except where to get off, then they get sleepy.
Years ago I saw a documentary about trains. It’s surprising how often railroad employees get hit by trains (my mom used to work for a law firm that specialized in railroad worker injury cases). The documentary mentioned that in Japan, railroad worker injuries were dramatically reduced when they instituted a requirement that rail workers look, and point with a finger, down both directions of every single track they walk across. I remember an amusing clip from that program showing a half-dozen rail workers walking across maybe a half-dozen tracks, resulting in a rapid-fire flurry of finger-pointing and head-turning as they walked without breaking their stride.
Googling for it now, it seems the “Pointing and Calling” standard is used in a variety of safety-related fields, and involves looking, pointing, and calling out the observed condition. It makes a big difference in safety results compared to just stoically/silently shifting your gaze to look.
Of course you’ll be hard pressed to get the general public to follow such rules - even when their lives depend on it.
Here is the actual selfie: UP: Selfie Tragedy Forever Impacts Those Left Behind
It looks like something out of a bad road runner cartoon. If it wasn’t so tragic, it would be funny.
Standard transmission + manual choke + lack of skill = stall.
Not too many cars in the US have manual transmissions anymore, and I haven’t seen a manual choke since my brother’s 64 Ford Fairlane that he drove in high school.
(I’ve made this joke before but…) Perhaps they were listening to The Best of Old 97s. 
Which is more likely, that the car failed at just the wrong time in just the wrong spot in just the wrong way or that the person in the car wanted it so and others are bending over backwards not to reach the unsavory conclusion?
I wasn’t able to google up a good, quick cite, but I found several small studies where alcohol was found to be a significant risk factor. (In one study it was involved in 13 of the 15 pedestrian deaths that were studied.)
Anecdotally, we’ve been given at least two Section 130* grants to upgrade the pedestrian warnings at crossings and add concrete medians to block cars from evading the gates because of alcohol related deaths.
- Other federal grants you have to apply for. The Section 130 folks identify train related safety issues, decide what upgrades are needed, then contact the railroad and municipality saying, ‘here’s this money, we want you to design and construct these changes.’
64 Ford Fairlane 500 coupe? Silver/grey with red striping? Red seats? Brings back memories. 
Whilst the fraction has grown small (~3% last year), the absolute numbers are still significant: Over half a million last year. That’s a lot of opportunities to screw up your coordination and stall out.
That’s also a problem in the NFL.
Seriously, I hear that often as a complaint from defenders that it’s harder to tackle really tall guys sometimes because they’re moving faster than they look and you mistime your tackle and miss. It’s probably the same principle.
That’s a classic, but I suspect it actually is a fake. I really want it to be true, but I can’t really find anything substantiating it. That said, I really wouldn’t take a bet on it either way, though I’m leaning “probably too good to be true.”
Agreed.
Maybe the driver slows way down to have the tires creep over the rails, trying to minimize damage (real or imagined) to the suspension. That could be one way to make stalling more likely.
Although I lean more toward the SFB explanation.
- SFB: Sewage For Brains
I guyess this is a good place to ressurect this bit of PSA gold: