Local Couple
Establishes Foundation About Railroad Safety
(Group hopes to install gates at all crossings)
THE OBSERVER-REPORTER
November 15, 2007
By: Ann-Margaret Lambo-Reporter
Bad crossings kill good drivers.
That’s the message the non-profit organization Angels
on Track is trying to driver home about the railroad industry. The
group believes railroad crossings across the country are in
need of serious upgrades and maintenance that ultimately would
protect driver’s lives.
Vicky and Denny Moore, who established
Angels on Track, know all too well what can happen at a crossing
that is not up to par. In March 1995, their sons, Jason
and Ryan, along with four other teens, were in a car attempting
to cross railroad tracks on rural Deerfield Avenue near the
Stark/Wayne County border when an oncoming train hit them.
Jason was driving the car. All three passengers in the
back seat, including Ryan, were killed instantly.
“When the accident happened, we asked ourselves what
everybody thinks – how can you not see or hear a train?” Denny
asked.
But once Denny visited the track where his son was killed,
it became painfully clear.
“When I went to the crossing where the accident happened
the next day, and I saw it, I understood how it could happen,” Denny
said. “It was unbelievable. With this particular
crossing, you go down a real steep hill with woods and brush
on both sides, creating a tunnel down to the tracks. When
you get down to the bottom, there was still a lot of brush
and trees. Jason couldn’t see the train coming
down the right side of the track because of all that overgrowth. So
how can you not see a train? It’s pretty doggone
easy.” After than life-changing night, the Moores
concluded they had to do something, but they weren’t
sure what. They knew they didn’t want other families
to experience the same horrific events they had endured.
“What we really wanted was for the railroad to accept
responsibility for what happened,” Vicky said. “We
wanted them to apologize. But that’s not how (the
judicial system) works.”
Denny said it became a legal battle.
“We didn’t want to get involved in a court case,
mostly because of our older son,” he said. “But
since we did get pulled into the case, we decided that if we
did get awarded some money, we couldn’t spend it. It
would be blood money to us. The money wasn’t important.”
The Moores were eventually awarded $7 million in a civil suit
against Conrail.
But before the jury had made its decision,
the Moores knew what they were going to do. They wanted
to establish a foundation that would educate the public about
how to make railroad crossings safer.
They also hoped the foundation could expedite the bureaucratic
process that often causes
railroad crossing improvements to take longer than necessary.
Many states requiring safety improvements must get federal
approval, which can slow the process futher.
Through their foundation, the Moores
also decided to set up county task forces that would be awarded
grant money through the organization. The prupose of these task forces was
simple – take the grant money from Angels on Track and
place safety gates at each of their county’s crossings. The
Moores learned the simplicity stopped there.
According to ther Moores, in the 10 years the foundation has
been in existence, they have only worked successfully with
six Ohio counties.
So the duo has turned to educating the public about railroad
crossing safety as another part of their mission.
Through the foundation, the Moores launched
the campaign “Bad
Crossings Kill Good Drivers®,” which includes billboards
and public service announcements on radio and television. They
also are continuing their efforts to gate railroad crossings
in Ohio and nationwide.
“Our Web site also has a Dangerous Crossing Report Form,
which people can fill out,” Denny said. “If
someone sees what they believe to be a dangerous crossing they
can fill out the form right on the Web site and send it. We
see every one filled out, and the form goes directly to the
Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO).”
Vicky would also like to see a more proactive response from
the railroad industry.
Vicky said railroad companies need to take some of the responsibility.
“We are not sitting here saying that drivers can’t
make mistakes, she said. “But the railroad’s
mindset is that it’s always the driver’s fault. The
railroad industry’s message to us is that drivers are
impatient, that they go around gates and try to beat the train. We’re
out there saying that yes, drivers can make a mistake, but
let’s talk about the other side of the story, like the
fact that only approximately 25 percent of railroad crossings
in the United States are gated.”
Locally, Angels on Track has found a
voice in two Jackson High School seniors. Holly Hughes
and Jessica Hi, both 17, have chosen Angels on Track as the
focus of their senior government project.
The girls chose Angels on Track because they were shocked
to learn the foundation even existed.
“I didn’t know much about railroads and I found
it to be really interesting,” said Hi.
Hughes agreed. “We were both surprised to learn
that there aren’t any laws that require railroad crossings
to be safer,” added Hughes. “And we were
both shocked to learn that Angels on Track was based out of
Ohio.”
Hi and Hughes plan to raise money and
community awareness through different fundraisers. Because of the length
of their project – it doesn’t have to be completed
until the third nine weeks of school – they are still
working on their fundraising logistics. They are planning
a letter campaign to Ohio’s legislature to attempt to
change the safety of railroad crossings here and across the
nation.
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