SALT LAKE CITY (ABC 4 News) – The Utah Transit Authority is reminding people about the dangers of placing objects on train tracks. The warning comes after UTA officials find video on the internet of someone placing a GoPro camera on the TRAX tracks.
Showing how well the little, portable cameras do in low light the GoPro filmmaker decided to take it out on a test drive so to speak.
jaymovision explains in his video, "Well, I ran it over with a train."
The film-maker just thought the train would go over the small camera but, "much to my surprise,” explained jaymovision, “I wasn't actually expecting the train’s undercarriage to drag the camera along."
The couple inch high camera was too big to be placed on tracks. Luckily it just bounced around and stayed under the train, but UTA officials say objects on the tracks can turn into projectiles that could easily hurt someone.
UTA Spokesperson Gerry Carpenter explained, "With a coin on the tracks it can actually pinch the coin like a watermelon and shoot it like a bullet so it's extremely dangerous behavior."
A larger object can actually even derail a train.
“They're designed to stay on the track, and they're pretty good about staying on the racks, but yeah it's always a potential that if you put something on the tracks it could cause a derailment, resulting in thousands of dollars in damages and potentially even injury or death,” said Carpenter.
If someone is caught trespassing on the TRAX tracks it could result in a fine of up to $500.
