Trespassing Casualties by State

Trespassing Casualties by State | Operation Lifesaver (oli.org)

FWIW

No, why would anyone do that?

Well, to answer your question with another question...

Have you ever waited 25 minutes for a 114 car train to pass?

I have on several instances while my dad stopped at the crossing. My brother and I were sitting in the back seat of the car and we started counting the cars... and the largest one we counted was 114. Others were 80, 90, 100 or more cars.

Some people are in a hurry, but they don't get where they're in a hurry to get to if that train collides with them.

Others are attempting to loose the police or others chasing them and thus dart through the gates.

Some, in highly congested areas are unable to make it through the gates due to the congestion ahead and get stuck over the track and cannot back up because of the congestion behind. In that case, you should attempt to back into the opposite lane but sometimes that too is congested.

Other times, their car stalls on the tracks and they're unable to get it started.

Regardless, there were 1080 such incidents in 2020 alone. And these were only the ones who were caught up in a train accident. There could be literally thousands or tens of thousands of others who crossed successfully without ending up in a colliion.

But regardless, it' dangerous, it's illegal and could get you killed.

But there were at least 1080 in 2020 who were struck by an oncoming train.

While you're there in front of the closed gates, you can neither tell the speed of the train nor the number of cars on that train. The faster the train, the more chances of collision. The longer the train, the longer you have to wait for it to clear the crossing!

FWIW

I have crossed the tracks when the lights were blinking and the train whistle audible in the distance. I haven't gone around the dropped lane blockers.

I look first, judge the speed of the approaching train, and decide whether to go. Of course this works best if you are the first in line at the crossing.

Yes. You wait and count cars.  It’s expected.

Occasionally, the lane blockers might be broke but it's rare as people usually call things like that in when they notice it.

FWIW

Never trust a train.

They have loco motives. (* BIG GRIN *)

FWIW