crossposted from: https://feddit.it/post/29954054
Source and additional pics:
https://beige.party/@Lana/116684403003398772
Also from the same thread:
For people who aren't intimately knowledgeable about the Seattle rail system, the Mt Baker station is an elevated platform. Meaning she had to have driven the WRONG WAY on a railroad about 40 feet up in the air for SEVERAL MILES to end up here.
Edit: it looks like it was not "several miles" but less then one mile; a notable feat anyway:
57 Comments
qwestjest78@lemmy.ca · 72 pts · 81d
The excuse that the GPS led them there is so ridiculous. Even if it did, you should absolutely have the awareness to determine that you can't drive on railway tracks and override that decision.
Drivers need to be held more accountable for the moronic things they do. You make mistakes with gigantic machines and people get hurt or die. It's not a, "whoops."
okwhateverdude@lemmy.world · 49 pts · 81d
"So anyway, chatgpt said..."
Cognitive surrender has been here all along, but it is about to get a lot worse.
Rentlar@lemmy.ca · 6 pts · 81d
The navigation on the new model of "Wet Nellie" must have switched to transit directions, after pressing the wrong mode change button.
Landless2029@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 80d
"I don't need to know things because Google/ChatGPT knows things for me."
"Those DO NOT ENTER signs must be wrong. GPS said to turn here!"
saltnotsugar@lemmy.world · 60 pts · 81d
My instinct says stay alive but the GPS says keep going straight.
squirrel@cake.kobel.fyi · 11 pts · 81d
My radio plays staying alive and my GPS is doing the thing with the colorful lines on the GTA map
flamingo_pinyata@sopuli.xyz · 42 pts · 81d
"Several miles" is incorrect. Measuring on Google Earth says 500m, or 0.3 miles.
Still a fuckup but much less impressive
CombatWombat@feddit.online · 11 pts · 81d
I think what's most concerning is that it's an elevated station. How do you leave the surface and not notice?
november@piefed.blahaj.zone · 7 pts · 81d
I mean, to be fair, once you've left the surface you can't exactly get off the rails.
Feathercrown@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 81d
Yeah maybe they just like, got stuck. Can't really turn around either.
happydoors@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 80d
I imagine that is what happened. Fear of reversing can make somebody plunge further ahead with some hope they could get out of it at a lower point with no repercussions? Still the wrong move but people be dumb
rainwall@piefed.social · 4 pts · 80d
She was also driving north on the southbound tracks. After that station, you head into a long underground tunnel as the train passes through the downtown.
Hope might spring eternal, but every bit going forward was actually more dangerous than the bit before for her and the thousand people on each train.
rainwall@piefed.social · 29 pts · 80d
Its not several miles, but it was at least a quarter mile. The station is elevated, but about a quarter mile away the tracks are level with the road. They are up a large curb, there is "no car" signage and you have to literally drive off a road, over a gap and onto train tracks, but its not miles away. You can almost see the station from the place she likely entered:
There apparently is video footage from the transit system, but it wasent been released yet so we don't know where she entered the tracks yet.
Seattle's local satire site "theneedling" hitting all the right notes as usual:
https://theneedling.com/2026/06/03/crazy-socialist-mayor-of-seattle-says-cars-not-allowed-to-drive-on-trains-only-train-tracks/
Drusas@fedia.io · 11 pts · 80d
Oh my god, it reads just like so many people on Nextdoor.
rainwall@piefed.social · 6 pts · 80d
They are absolutely in their element with this one. Another great blitzkrieg on it :
https://theneedling.com/2026/05/02/mount-baker-station-celebrates-opening-of-new-park-and-ride-to-psychiatrist/
Beacon@fedia.io · 9 pts · 80d
Great additional info, thanks!
Seeing the pic of it makes it a microscopic iota easier to understand how the mistake happened, but very clearly any person who's capable of driving shouldn't ever make that mistake. And even if a person accidentally started turning on to the tracks, any mentally capable driver would've immediately recognized that it was totally wrong and backed out of it.
Can you imagine how terribly wrong the car motion would've felt as soon as the metal tracks rose above the road surface?
Drusas@fedia.io · 6 pts · 80d
The driver is 70 years old. I suspect that was a factor in the mistake.
Beacon@fedia.io · 5 pts · 80d
Seems very plausible. IMO a drivers license should have mandatory retesting every 10 years. And the driving test should be much more thorough
Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de · 2 pts · 76d
it should just be a straight up 10 year validity of licenses and a full redo of ALL the steps to get a license, no reason not to have that. Standards change, and you've gotta teach people the parts that have changed.
Almacca@aussie.zone · 27 pts · 81d
Can't park there, mate.
regdog@lemmy.world · 23 pts · 81d
So she drove her card on a very small set of rails for several miles? And she only slipped from the rails when she entered the station? That's actually an impressive driving feat.
cupcakezealot@piefed.blahaj.zone · 20 pts · 81d
hey its me playing gta 3
eager_eagle@lemmy.world · 16 pts · 81d
All we had to do was follow the damn train, CJ
OhVenus_Baby@lemmy.ml · 3 pts · 80d
Left this post and came back to comment because I appreciate good nostalgia.
OhVenus_Baby@lemmy.ml · 1 pts · 80d
Nobody ever gets these references. Goated.
psx_crab@lemmy.zip · 13 pts · 81d
That's the new CRT, Car Rapid Transit. In the future they might link it with several car.
four@lemmy.zip · 9 pts · 81d
Hook them up in a chain. Like a.. transit-chain
JasonDJ@lemmy.zip · 7 pts · 81d
Like a trucker convoy, but on rails?
Agent641@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 81d
My god... Someone call the patent office!
9488fcea02a9@sh.itjust.works · 3 pts · 80d
10 years ago, I had a friend unironically describe to me how self driving cars would solve traffic jams by communicating and coordinating with each other to drive at high speed, in a line, close to each other, with just inches between each car....
"bro... you just invented a really shitty, inefficient train..."
SCmSTR@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 12 pts · 81d
Hold up. This is in SEATTLE?! How did they even get the car to the track? This is like getting a car onto a subway track.
Edit: ahhh. In other pictures, it's down south where the track gets to ground level. Also, utah plates.
neuracnu@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 9 pts · 81d
This is what you get when you build light rail at street level without adequate crossing barriers.
Seattle’s Link light rail was built through the city’s south side through the middle of Martin Luther King Junior Way South (“MLK”) with street level crossings for cars and pedestrians, for miles and miles, without any physical barriers like bollards or traditional railroad crossing gates, just flashing lights. Trains are hitting cars all the time here, and it’s incredibly easy for a car to drive right onto the tracks.
There has long been a need for a major safety improvement project to correct this, but Sound Transit is having major project funding problems lately regarding a new line being built, so we’re basically stuck with this problem for at least 20 more years.
Update: Including a photo from the original thread. This is where the driver drove up. The photos from the original post were taken at the light rail station, which is up the rail ramp in this photo and to the left.
You can see concrete curbs here separating the at-grade rail from the street (which are easy enough to drive over), but even those curbs disappear at street crossings.
Poach@lemmy.world · 17 pts · 81d
We could just have higher standards for drivers...
neuracnu@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 2 pts · 81d
While this person probably needs their license taken away, blaming drivers for unsafe infrastructure is not the answer.
CombatWombat@feddit.online · 10 pts · 81d
Well, the drivers are by-and-large the ones who opposed properly funding the light rail's initial construction, so I do still blame them.
captainlezbian@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 80d
The infrastructure should be better, but this is a really difficult mistake to make if you're fit to drive
lightnsfw@reddthat.com · 4 pts · 80d
When the infrastructure is only unsafe because the driver is a fucking moron it is.
Jax@sh.itjust.works · 13 pts · 81d
.. man there's no way you drive for long enough to get up that ramp without realizing 'none of this sounds, feels, or looks right'.
Seems much more like a critical lack of awareness.
tomi000@lemmy.world · 11 pts · 81d
Not sure if "this is what you get", something like this doesnt happen very often.
Feathercrown@lemmy.world · 9 pts · 81d
We can also remove their license and implement stricter requirements. If they can't drive it's fine, we have a rail to ride to work!
daggermoon@piefed.world · 9 pts · 81d
And they're still alive? Fucking crazy.
Almacca@aussie.zone · 6 pts · 81d
Unfortunately for the species, yes.
kandoh@reddthat.com · 8 pts · 81d
People are saying she was following google maps but had it set to transit instead of driving by mistake
captainlezbian@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 80d
I'd say this is some uniquely stupid thing, but apparently when Google maps was new people used to follow it into Lake Washington.
maniacalmanicmania@aussie.zone · 1 pts · 80d
Death by GPS.
Drusas@fedia.io · 4 pts · 80d
She's seventy years old. She needs a cognitive assessment.
herseycokguzelolacak@lemmy.ml · 8 pts · 80d
This is probably very dangerous, but also hilarious.
Beacon@fedia.io · 7 pts · 81d
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/woman-says-gps-led-her-onto-seattle-light-rail-tracks/ar-AA24M15G
Reygle@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 81d
Critical think is dead. Long live critical thinking.
Also booze is doing GREAT
quick_snail@feddit.nl · 3 pts · 80d
You mean that's not the car free expressway for entitled douchebags?
What else could it be for?!?
Etterra@discuss.online · 3 pts · 80d
I'm waiting for them to say "Google maps told me to."
lgsp@feddit.it · 5 pts · 80d
Already happened
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/woman-says-gps-led-her-onto-seattle-light-rail-tracks/ar-AA24M15G
Etterra@discuss.online · 1 pts · 79d
At least this particular moron didn't drive straight into water.
dan69@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 80d
Driver must have thought they got the new update to electrify to charge while driving.
lemmywinksthegerbilking@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 2 pts · 80d
in gta?
GutterRat42@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 80d
Fucking Mazda drivers... Checks driveway... Oh wait, I am one of them
altphoto@lemmy.today · 1 pts · 80d
This is crazy?! I thought it would be a Florida thing or something in a random country... Nah Seattle!