Railway
Safety Unifies Group
Canal Fulton couple, others devote time, energy to eliminating
dangerous conditions at crossings
The Beacon
Journal
November 21, 1999
By: Kymberli Hagelberg-Beacon
Journal Staff Writer
Jackson Twp: Vicky
Moore walked purposefully around the small conference room
at the Canton Holiday Inn, dispensing pained smiles and quick
hugs, like a family matriarch greeting friends at a funeral.
Across the room,
Vicky's husband, Dennis, pointed to a bulletin board plastered
with glossy travel page accounts of the latest scenic railroad
route and catalog pages decorated with toys for the puscale
train enthusiast and shrugged. "We put this together
basically as sarcasm," he said. "It's the kind
of thing we see every day and have a hard time with."
Yesterday, the Moores
hosted a meeting of 30 state-level railway safety activists
from Ohio, Virginia, and Illinois. The group met to discuss
forming a national organization that would push for the installation
of lighted gates at all railroad crossings and increase enforcement
of government standards for their upkeep.
According to the
Houston-Texas agency Railwatch, a train accident occurs every
90 minutes in the United States.
The Moores have
made preventing those accidents their personal cause since
the Canal Fulton couple lost a son to a car-train accident
in 1995.
Ryan Moore, 16,
was killed in a car-train accident on Deerfield Avenue near
the Stark-Wayne County line in Baughman Township. Two other
Northwest High School teen-agers - Alyson Ley, 16, of Clinton,
and Joshua White, 17, of Canal Fulton - also died in the
crash. Ryan's brother Jason, now 22, was the driver of the
car.
"It was a real
steep hill,"
Dennis Moore said. "He stopped. He didn't try to beat
the train and there was no alcohol. He looked left, but had
some trouble seeing right.
"All three
kids in the back seat died. Jason lived, and physically he's
really good. Emotionally, we all went through something that
will always be on our minds."
Last year, the Moores
established the nonprofit organization called Angels on Track
with a $5.4 million court settlement from Conrail. In august,
the foundation donated $61,569 to the Wayne County commissioners
to provide lighted gates at three railroad crossings.
Regulations for
railway signs and maintenance vary from state to state. In
Ohio, the Public Utilities Commission and the Ohio Rail Development
Commission oversee crossings. In other states, only a judge
can order changes to a crossings. Representatives at yesterday's
meeting hope to lobby uniformity of railway sign and safety
standards.
"There should
be an inventory of every crossing in the country, with dangerous
crossings at the top of the list for improvements," said
Robert Comer of Magnolia.
Scott Gauvin of
Springfield, Ill., founder of the Coalition for Safer Crossings,
came to Ohio to encourage activists to seek publicity for
their cause.
Gauvin became a
railway activist after his best friend died trying to cross
Union Pacific tracks near St. Louis.
"I tried to talk to the railroad and to local trustees
for a year then I went public," Gauvin said. "I was
in the weekend magazine and on the TV news three times in two
days.
"Suddenly everyone
called back."
The state activists
at the meeting made tentative plans for a conference next
fall.
Until the national
organization is formed, the individual groups will continue
to weave a loose confederation through newsletters and the
Internet with the ultimate goal of putting a face on railroad
fatalities.
Debbie Klostermeier,
founder of the Ohio organization Hands Across the Rails,
got the permission of a Fulton County farmer to place a picture
of her daughter Taneeca near the tracks where the 18 year-old
was killed in 1994.
"When you cross
those tracks, you'll see her face," said Klostermeier,
who has lobbied for a federal law that would mandate lights
and gates at all railroad crossings. "Her death, for
me, needs to make a difference for someone else.
" I buried
my only daughter on New Year's Eve.
"I have not
put up a Christmas tree in five years. The human side of
this had to be told."
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