runaway box cars didnt set off crossing gates?

I watched a Rescue 911 segmenton youtube.com that showed a car being hit by a runaway boxcar at a crossing. The gates and lights werent activated. A state trooper saved the driver of the car; the passenger died. Thats scary if runaway boxcars don't trigger the warning devices.

If it's a ten mile per hour railroad, and that boxcar was running fourty, the crossing wouldn't time out, and have a chance to lower the gates, before the crossing was occupied. Sounds like the runaway from I&O Railroad.............

It depends on the type of crossing circuitry as well as the speed of the freight cars.

If this was mainline track and the crossing signals included a predictor, then they should have been activated.

If this was a slow-speed branch or industrial track that only had a straight DC island circuit with very short or no approach circuits, then there is a good chance that the gates would not have been activated prior to the rail cars occupying the crossing. Likewise, if there was heavy rust or debris on the running rails, that would nullify contact between wheel and rail and prevent the gates from operating.

We are also forgeting to ask was the rail rusty? We have in our GTBS for the Yates City sub to stop and protect at every crossing due to rusty rail.