County
Rail Crossings To Be Rated For Safety
The
Delaware Gazette
August
24, 1998
by: Karlyn Byers
Each meeting leaves
her exhausted and tearful, she said, but she is determined
to make her deceased son's life count for something.
Canal Fulton resident
Vicky Moore left the Delaware County Engineer's Office last
week, after a 2 l/2 hour meeting with local authorities.
More told how her
16-year-old son, Ryan Moore, was killed in a car-train accident
near the Stark-Wayne County border on March 25, 1995.
The crossing was
on the federal government's list of upgrades. It was placed
on that list in November 1994.
Vicki and her husband,
Denny Moore sued Conrail and received an $8 million settlement.
They put the settlement into the Angels on Track Foundation,
which bestows grants to counties committed to improving track
safety. She thinks Delaware County may be one of those.
"They were
excited,"
Moore said of the participants at last week's meeting. "And
that excites me."
Members decided
they will inventory Delaware County's 50-some crossings,
checking to see how many vehicles cross each day; whether
the crossings are part of a main, spur, or switching line;
whether vegetation obscures vision fields; or if any tracks
are likely to be upgraded by the federal government.
Once that is completed,
crossings will be ranked, with the most dangerous crossings
receiving the highest rankings.
More said Angels
on Track will award up to $40,000 for each dangerous crossing
to be upgraded. The county would need to secure matching
funds. Not all crossings will need warning lights and crossbars,
she said, so not all upgradings will be that expensive.
The
foundation looks for each community commitment. Moore said, "We
don't want to work with people who don't want to put the
time and effort into this."
Filing deadline
is October l of each year. There is probably not enough time
for Delaware County to get its inventory and priority system
implemented before this year's deadline, Moore added.
Charles Sheets,
Oxford Township trustee, was elected chairman of the Delaware
task force. Stanley Haas, a retired Conrail track maintenance
employee, was elected vice-chairman, and Tom Corpora, county
engineer's and commissioners' safety officer, secretary.
Also at the meeting
were Rob Marvin, Public Utilities Commission of Ohio Rail
Division chief, and Paul Spatero, a retired PUCO rail inspector
and a railroad safety consultant.
The next railroad
safety task force meeting will be September 16 at 1:30pm
in the Delaware County Engineer's Office. For further information,
call 368-1930.
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