RR CRASH INVESTIGATION COULD TAKE WEEKS; INSTALLING
LIGHTS AND/OR GATES LONGER (IF EVER)
Pinckneyville Post
By Jeff Smyth
4/1/14
Perry County Sheriff Keith Kellerman confirmed that he will
review a video taken by a camera on-board the Canadian National
(CN) Railroad locomotive involved in a fatal collision last
week.
Kellerman will watch the video April 1, but added the investigation
his department is heading into the accident could take several
weeks as he awaits a final report from the railroad that includes
data from a recorder also equipped on the train.
“We are actively working on an investigation and waiting
for the railroad to give us its information,” Kellerman
said. “I will get to see the tape on Tuesday.”
The accident occurred around 1:30 p.m. March 24 when a southeast-bound
CN freight train struck a pick-up truck driven by Jeremy Nehrkorn,
27, of Pinckneyville. Nehrkorn was traveling northbound on
Denny Road just past Tanglefoot Road when he approached the
humped crossing marked only by cross bucks and a yield sign.
CN spokesman Patrick Waldron would not say when the company
is expected to release the data to the sheriff’s department,
or why it could take two weeks or longer to do so. He did confirm
that the speed limit for trains traveling that section of the
rail occurred is 60 mph.
Like commercial airlines, locomotives are required to carry
data recorders which monitor the train’s rate of speed,
when brakes are applied, when whistles are blown and more.
Unlike the airline industry, which immediately turns over its
so-called “black box” to the federal National Transportation
and Safety Board for analysis, the railroad maintains control
of the recorder and provides its findings to the investigating
authorities.
Vickie Moore casts suspicion on the railroad investigating
itself. When her son and two of his friends died in a vehicle-train
collision in rural Ohio in 1995 also marked only by cross bucks,
she had more questions than answers as to what information
about the event was recorded. The family had to hire an attorney
to get those answers.
“In the case of my son, the black box was missing after
one week,” Moore, who along with her husband, Dennis,
established Angels on Track, a foundation to promote crossing
safety, said. “We had to hire an attorney to request
evidence and not rely on just what the railroad gave us.”
Among the foundation’s efforts, one is to promote the
installation of enhanced protection such as lights and gates
at all crossings. The other is to debunk the stereotype that
the driver is always at fault in vehicle-train collisions.
“All the focus is on the driver. That is the way the
law is written,” Moore said. “Even when the crossing
is dangerous such as a hump or where there is heavy vegetation
all the responsibility is still on the driver,” she said. “Instead
of pointing the finger at them we should be asking why the
driver didn’t stop. Look at the crossing. The railroad
has a moral obligation to protect motorists.”
But protection comes at a cost; one initially covered by taxpayers,
but sustained by the railroad. Moore believes this long term
obligation is a disincentive for railroads to want to upgrade
warning devices at crossings.
Each time drivers in Illinois purchase gasoline part of the
motor fuel tax – totaling about $3.25 million annually – is
diverted to the Grade Crossing Protection Fund (GCPF) administered
by the Illinois Commerce Commission (ICC). That money is used
to install warning signals, gates, grade separations, crossing
closures and approaches, among other applications.
A gate and warning light system can cost between $180,000-$200,000
plus grade improvements that run from $2,000 to as much as
$100,000. GCPF money typically pays for about 85 percent of
the project with 10 percent coming from local governing bodies
such as county or municipal governments and 5 percent from
the railroad.
Perry County Engineer Brian Otten said what is not factored
in is the cost of the road work near the crossing which is
100 percent the responsibility of the local governing body.
In cash-strapped areas like Perry County, that can become burdensome.
There are 76 crossings in Perry County, according to the Federal
Railroad Administration. Of those, 27 include only cross bucks/yield
signs, 11 have lights, 37 lights and gates and one nothing.
Overall, Illinois is second in the nation to Texas in the number
of crossings with 7,781 where tracks cross highways and 7,071
on local roads.
The Federal Railroad Administration reports there were 87 crossing
collisions in 2012 resulting in 26 deaths.
With $39 million being pumped annually into GCPF, the ICC maintains
a running five-year plan for crossing improvements. There are
three crossings in Perry County on the current list for gate/light
installation and approach improvements including Morning Glory
Road in Winkle, $440,000; Maple Street in Tamaroa, $335,000;
and Valier Carpet Road near Tamaroa, $310,000.
While the Denny and Tanglefoot roads crossing is not on the
list, an appeal was made in the mid-1990s to have safety devices
installed. At the time, then-road commissioner Randy
Farthing and county engineer Roy Smith asked the ICC to review
that crossing, the Pick Road crossing and one other. The ICC
looked at each but denied the request based on a formula that
factors the amount of vehicle and train traffic at the crossing.
Accidents, fatal and non-fatal – are also considered.
The ICC determined that the 25 vehicles and eight trains that
passed through each crossing daily wasn’t enough to warrant
the safety enhancements. In 1999, when a vehicle-train collision
took the life of Geraldine Luke, the ICC reconsidered the Pick
Road crossing. In 2000, lights and gates were installed.
Otten said fatalities such as these put a “big target” on
crossing and he wouldn’t be surprised if the Denny Road
is also reconsidered.
“It gets the attention of the ICC,” he said.
Moore is adamant that it shouldn’t have to come to a
fatality to wake up people on the needs for all crossings to
be protected.
“A yield sign is no protection,” she said. “There
is no excuse. Every single crossing should be gated.”
|
