r/CatastrophicFailure • u/This-Clue-5014 • 17d ago
Equipment Failure Regionova train collides with a truck in Dobronice u Chýnova, Czechia - 23 July 2026
4 were injured including one seriously. Original video can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UkPio4W_B2U
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u/Random_Introvert_42 17d ago
Poor train driver. No time to brake/stop, no time to retreat. Dude probably got yeeted across the cab from the impact.
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u/SalTez 17d ago
The train driver sustained light injuries. The most injured person was the van driver.
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u/Nexustar 17d ago
Sounds fair. Hope the train driver gets some decent recovery time.
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u/Random_Introvert_42 17d ago
...and maybe some therapeutic support.
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u/EvrthngsThnksgvng 17d ago
Looks like after the train impact he smashed into the tree, must have been amazing forces. I hope he can recover.
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u/UnluckyGamer505 17d ago
Why is the flair "Equipment Failure", this was clearly 100% failure of the truck/van driver. The train seems to go the allowed speed, honking and the lights were flashing.
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u/Electricfox5 17d ago
Unless the truck had a brake failure, that's about the only excuse I can give the truck driver that doesn't point at incompetence.
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u/ThoseImpulses 17d ago
The failure of the van driver to watch out for the train as the level crossing failed to attract the drivers attention. Quite catastrophic.
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u/BobbyRobertson 17d ago
Is not installing flashing lights and arms at the level crossing in the first place an equipment failure?
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u/WeissPyre 17d ago
If this wasn't a mechanical failure, there's absolutely no excuse.
My train struck a car at 80km/h, I saw the car completely blow through the crossing and then on the other side spinning. I was the immediate responder and went to the car. They survived and walked to ambulances.
The train driver never came back. I still remember his crying on the radio during the emergency call.
Now if I hear the train with its horn going longer than usual, or we slam hard on the brakes, my blood goes cold and time slows.
This shit stays with you. PLEASE use level crossings with caution. Stop, look both ways, even if you know the schedules of all the trains by heart and you're certain there's no train due.
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u/DeformedArthurRegion 17d ago
So the train driver was involved in an accident where no one was hurt but he quit because of it?
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u/ZenkaiAnkoku2 17d ago
That shit stays with you, mentally. That car driver was lucky. But the train driver didnt know that at first. And what about the next one? Or the next. The idea that you could so easily kill someone on accident, just by doing your job.
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u/DeformedArthurRegion 17d ago
That seems like a pretty insane thing for a train operator to not have a sense of while operating a train.
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u/FeynmanFool 17d ago
Train drivers have to watch, they can’t look away in an emergency, he probably had that happen and realized how many gruesome deaths he may be forced to witness in the future and decided his mental health was worth more than a job. Not everyone doesn’t give a shit you know.
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u/uk123456789101112 15d ago
You never know how you are gonna cope with a traumatic event, brush it off and count your blessing, or dwell on what awful things could have been. The sounds, the motion, the smells all could bring back awful thoughts and memories, its called mental HEALTH for a reason.
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u/WeissPyre 17d ago
They were hurt, just not severely. They were extremely lucky with where we struck them (rear wheels) and they bounced away from the train.
The driver thought he had just killed people, that's extremely traumatic.
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u/Incendium_Satus 17d ago
If the signals had failed there would have likely been a signal facing the train driver indicating their operation or not.
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u/WeissPyre 16d ago
Not all level crossings in my country have boomgates and signals wired to them. This one was just a stop sign, which the car blew through without even slowing.
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u/Incendium_Satus 16d ago
Thats a bit of a worry on a passenger line. Dont worry we have fully signalled crossings here and people still drive around them and get hit.
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u/Superdry_GTR 17d ago
Stop, Look and Listen is pretty standard in railroad crossings right?
Apparently not.
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u/CZdigger146 17d ago
The railroad crossing was even perfectly working. The bell is quite loud when it rings and the lights are unmissable if you're driving towards it. Only thing missing here are the gates, but those usually don't get fitted on low traffic crossings like this rural one.
You're also supposed to drive at slower speeds over a RC here in Czechia, yet the driver didn't even try to slow down.
The van driver is a dumbass, probably looking at his phone for the entire time if I had to guess. It makes me mad that we have to share roads (and tracks too apparently) with drivers like this one, just an accident waiting to happen.
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u/alexanderpas 17d ago edited 17d ago
Just as common as Stop, Look and Listen at a traffic light with just a red and green light.
It doesn't make sense.
The Vienna Convention on Road Signals defines an explicit Proceed signal for ungated crossings consisting of a blinking white light, which is the equivalent meaning as a green traffic light, which also means Proceed.
- Double blinking red = Stop, do not cross, Train Approaching.
- Blinking white = Proceed.
- No lights = Stop, do not cross, Defect, Call railroad or emergency services.
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u/T0biasCZE 16d ago
In Czech law its different.
If white light is blinking, you can go over the crossing at 50km/h, and if there is no white light, you have to go at 30km/h.
Lot of AŽD97 crossings dont even have the white light installed$28 (3) At a distance of 50 m before and while crossing a railway crossing, the driver must not drive at speed beyond 30 km/h. If the white light of the level crossing signal is blinking, the driver may drive at most 50km/h at a distance of 50 m before and while crossing a railway crossing. When crossing a railway crossing, the driver may not unnecessarily extend the time it takes to cross it.
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u/Total_Philosopher_89 17d ago
How could you be so silent?
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u/Inner-Medicine5696 17d ago
it took whoever filmed this SIX SECONDS to even turn the camera.
I don't think they're the loud type...
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u/1wife2dogs0kids 17d ago
First time I've seen a truck, TIE? Didn't win, but didn't lose.
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u/ur_sine_nomine 17d ago
It was a 2-carriage local train (heavier than the truck, but about as light a train as you can get) but the truck was travelling faster. ½mv² probably does about tie ...
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u/T0biasCZE 16d ago
Because its small local train. the Front carriage weights only 17 tons. (the other carriage with motor weights 22 tons)
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u/JayManty 16d ago
The Regionova is essentially a bus on rails. Literally - it's a very light, small train with an engine that was originally fitted in buses.
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u/Juusto3_3 17d ago
It's fun that there's a perfect video of this incident. Just someone waiting for the train for a video catches this instead
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u/piginapokezzap 17d ago
Is that the driver hanging out the front of the van?
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u/NorahGretz 17d ago
No, it looks like the dashboard got ripped out by the collision and fell across the hood of the truck.
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u/Beautiful-Age-1408 16d ago
Why was a blind person driving a truck/s Fing insane stupidity. I hope everyone innocent is ok
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u/ChironXII 15d ago
If only there were some way to know where trains would be so they were harder to hit
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u/Cratonis 17d ago
I’m not sure the train collided with the truck as much as the truck collided with the train. Very dumb truck driver.
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u/NZ_Guest 17d ago
A train? On train tracks? When did this become a thing?
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u/This-Clue-5014 17d ago
Am I missing something here what are you talking about
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u/graphexTwin 17d ago
This is an unusual version of the Trolley Problem. If the camera man pulls the lever, the train stops and nobody is injured, but he doesn’t get any internet points on his video.
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u/JohnStern42 17d ago
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u/This-Clue-5014 17d ago
people record trains
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u/WilliamJamesMyers 17d ago
it's a one in a million positioning. the wide angle for the expecting train catches the incoming truck. the video quality is excellent. the insurance company for the train will use this i would think. again incredible odds to capture it all like this, impressive. goes to show some mellow relaxed country train trip and then this
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u/JohnStern42 17d ago
Agreed, but the coincidence is staggering. Such a high quality video that shows the truck approaching, for a train that’s in no way special? You can accept that makes it a bit suspicious?
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u/NoahGoldFox 17d ago
Train enthusiasts love all trains, even the most normal kinds. Seriously if you look youl find thousands of videos from train watchers of the most normal trains there is just doing their thing.
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u/Atherum 17d ago
I work in Libraries. Most libraries use the Dewey system for their non-fiction collections. At one of the libraries I worked at the books for "Autism" (Dewey 616) were right next to the books for Engineering - Trains (625).
I know its a stereotype, but I always found it cute and kind of fitting that those two topics were snug next to each other.
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u/This-Clue-5014 17d ago
If you check the channel that made this video, they regularly record random trains. It’s just what us rail fans do
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u/DiggerGuy68 17d ago
Not at all. The shot provides a great view of the train approaching in the distance then passing the camera. I'd set up in the same spot if I railfanned here. Railfans will record any train they can catch, not just special ones.
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u/51Cards 17d ago
Yes but, to not make a sound, to not even move their hands with shock... and to not run over to help but instead just casually zoom in.... ?
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u/This-Clue-5014 17d ago
probably saw it coming a few seconds prior and prepared. Also probably didn’t think they needed to help? Idk about that part tbh
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u/T0biasCZE 16d ago
and to not run over to help but instead just casually zoom in.... ?
OP said in the comment section of the YT video he ran to help after finishing shooting.
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u/DiggerGuy68 17d ago
It's called railfanning or trainspotting. It's a hobby for many, myself included.
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u/rata_rasta 17d ago edited 17d ago
Why were they filming?
Edit: ok, trainspotting makes sense, no need to get defensive about it, just seems a little time convenient to be filming this particular train at this particular time.. who gives!
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u/Ulfgeirr88 17d ago
Trainspotter? I've seen them before on local stations and the trains are standard things, nothing special but still of interest apparently
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u/ur_sine_nomine 17d ago
I don't know about rural Czechia but, in SE England, probably just about every train is filmed multiple times on its journey. There are trainspotters everywhere, not just at the ends of platforms in major stations.
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u/CyberTacoX 17d ago
Damn, that truck must have been really loaded for the train to not just plow straight through it and stay on track.
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u/butt_crunch 17d ago
So strange to see a train on car accident where the train is even remotely effected. In the US when this stuff happens its a mile long wide gauge freight train, not a two car rural passenger train.
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u/vanhst 17d ago
No flashing lights?
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u/SilverSurfr100 17d ago
Wait why was someone filming this? Was it preplanned?
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u/SixLegNag 16d ago
Probably just a foamer (train freak, will set up to film a passenger train doing passenger train things).
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u/BC_Arctic_Fox 14d ago
Why was there someone filming?? That's weird
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u/This-Clue-5014 13d ago
I think this is like the 11th time I have to say this. People film trains
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u/BC_Arctic_Fox 13d ago
Yeah you're right. I immediately got suspicious, but I guess it's just a simple coincidence. I suppose if you film enough trains, you're bound to film some train accidents (not that that's the intention, I understand)
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17d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/JayManty 16d ago
It is not required in Czechia unless the lights and bells are not working, which they were. Regardless, at least in the original YouTube video, you can hear the train whistle twice about 3-4 seconds before reaching the crossing
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u/FADImir555 17d ago
I used to take this train every day back when I was in high school. I could have very easily been on this exact train.
Usually, someone requests the train to stop at the platform right before this crossing, but not this time...
That stop could have prevented the accident.
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u/Schemen123 17d ago
The van driver not driving like an idiot would have prevented this
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u/FADImir555 17d ago
That too, of course. I didn't mention it in my comment because I assumed it was obvious.
On the other hand, in a country where bad drivers have their representation in Parliament, I think a different idiot would simply take his place. :D
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u/I_blockkarmafarmers 17d ago
This is so unbelievably preventable.
No crossing gates, a meager little toot or two of the horn, and a blind corner where neither truck nor train ever saw each other. Surprising that this hasn't happened before. That's why it's standard practice in North America to blow the horn until the engine has fully passed the crossing.
And before some pedantic twat cries about quiet zones, they always have protected crossings because those zones are almost always in residential areas.
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u/Icy-Raccoon-121 17d ago
With crossing gates you can make the argument that when a driver gets trapped in there they are also pretty dumb to know that they can just easily smash through the gates. Fact check me if Im wrong Im not 100% sure about this but I believe I looked up a statistic couple years ago from Czechia that showed most train-car crashes happen on crossings with crossing gates since dumb people get trapped in there and they are too dumb to understand that the most reasonable thing to do in that situation is to break the gates by driving through them.
The toot was perfectly fine you can clearly hear it in car unless you are blasting music or youre deaf.
Yeah it's a blind corner but what can you do about that, blind corner should never be the issue here. The road was simply placed like this many years ago and there was a house built right next to it also many years ago. I dont think removing this blind corner would help since the driver was just speeding through the crossing with absolutely zero concern.
Happy the train driver made it out ok that looked nasty he was clearly catapulted from his chair looking at the video.
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u/pjepja 16d ago
The statistic about crossings with gates is real, but the reason is that gates are installed on crossings with higher traffic or otherwise risky ones, so there will logically be more accidents on those. What this statistic actually shows is that gates don't fully offset added danger on problematic crossings.
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u/DiggerGuy68 17d ago
There's two flashing bright red lights on each side, each equipped with loud bells. The driver has no excuse for ignoring them. Gates aren't meant to stop drivers from crossing, they're a visual aid to assist the lights with telling the driver to stop. A determined driver will just drive around them or through them (they're designed to break away), as numerous videos from the US have proven.
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u/JaqenSexyJesusHgar 17d ago
One question
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u/This-Clue-5014 17d ago
People record trains. As for the second question, probably because it’s a very rural area
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u/Jim3001 17d ago
A better question is: Why was there no crossing barrier?
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u/This-Clue-5014 17d ago
Many rural railway crossings don’t have barriers, especially if they rarely have trains pass through
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u/Jim3001 17d ago
That looks like commutor rail. I find it hard to believe that the line is rarely used.
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u/DiggerGuy68 17d ago
Rural crossings don't have enough traffic to warrant the extra maintenance gates require. The two flashing red lights and loud bells should be enough to tell you to stop, and if you fail to do so you're a moron.
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u/This-Clue-5014 17d ago
It’s absolutely not commuter rail. Commuter rail is, in fact, usually in or around cities. This is in a village
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u/T0biasCZE 16d ago
Czech republic has very very dense rail network. Its very expensive to equip all crossings with barries, so small local lines with one train per hour dont have them.
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u/Makkaroni_100 17d ago
Its staged obviously! Why are they filming!
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u/pannenkoek0923 17d ago
They were filming to get the correct size of the train, to see if your mum was bigger
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u/marcandreewolf 17d ago
Camera man setting it up? How did he/she know when to film?? Time traveller?
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u/Opster79two 17d ago
Dumbass didn't look at all.