Wow! Mich State Policeman rescues auto passenger after being hit by two run-a-way boxcars.
run-a-way

A touching story, but I'm somewhat surprised at the recreation of the event. It looks like they actually sent two boxcars rolling down the same hill just for this TV show! Later on you can see a locomotive in some of the shots, but then they actually recreated the officer jumping aboard and dragging his heals!

Can't help but wonder why the gates and signals weren't working.

I would imagine that the re-creation involved a professional stunt man as a standin. But given the facts of the situation (runaway cars, inoperative signals), I wonder why the railroad allowed it.

Two lite boxcars wouldn't shunt the signal circuits...

FWIW, in another life 35+ years ago I worked for General Telephone of the Midwest. The stores person who handed out material always looked like a pretty banged up character (slightly like Frankenstein monster). Turns out that he had stopped at an unsignaled (only crossbucks) crossing late at night, while a train rolled by. The last cat rolled by, he started across and was T boned by the caboose. Obiviously the caboose had no air or the brakes were off somehow, (last car must have had angle cock closed, and conductor must not have paid attention to caboose air gage at zero), who knows. He got a handsome settlement out of the RR but that couldn't begin to make up for the months of recuperation and the daily round of pain meds he popped.