FUNDS
OFFERED TO MAKE CROSSINGS SAFER
News Herald
4/5/00
By Jennifer Funk - Staff Writer
Port Clinton - It
was a March weekend in 1995, and 16-year-old Ryan Moore's
older brother inched the car up onto the railroad tracks
to peek over the overgrown brush to look for a train in Stark
County.
It was then that
the car was broadsided by a Conrail train going 60 miles
per hour through the crossing that had neither warning lights
nor gates, killing Ryan and two other boys instantly.
Ryan's parents,
Vicky and Dennis Moore of Canal Fulton, won an $8 million
settlement in the suit that followed the accident and introduced
the foundation they started with the money to Ottawa County
commissioners Tuesday.
The Angels on Track
Foundation, established in 1997, was created to establish
railroad safety task forces in the 80 counties in Ohio where
there are railroad crossings. Those task forces will identify
dangerous crossings and apply for a matching grant to help
pay for warning signals.
"We knew had
there been gates or lights there that day, there never would
have been a collision," Vicky told commissioners.
She said Stark County
officials found out later the crossing her son died at was
the most dangerous in the county.
"It was too
late, my son was gone," she said.
She saked commissioners
to start a task force made up of county, city and village
officials as well as residents to identify trouble crossings,
prioritize which need warning signals and take digital pictures
of the crossings for a database the foundation is compiling.
She said the information
the state has compiled is old and not updated as to the amount
of accidents and vehicles that cross specific tracks.
Commissioners told
the Moores there is already updated county information and
there is a plan in place to get gates and lights at a majority
of the high traffic crossings in the county.
"We're working
on them-it's not like they're just sitting there," Commissioner
John Papcun said.
"But it's like you said, you have to keep plugging at
it.
The foundation is
offering a match of 30 percent of the total cost of the warning
signals up to $40,000.
Commissioner Carl
Koebel said after the meeting that the commissioners will
get with Board President Steve Arndt, who could not attend
the meeting, and discuss the proposal.
"I'm sure we'll
put together a task force, it's just a matter of who it's
going to be," he said.
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