GROUP
TO RALLY FOR RAILROAD SAFETY
(Push for installation of lights and gates at unsafe crossings)
The Repository
8/23/01
By: Ed Balint - Staff Writer
Williams County
-- Railroad safety advocates will rally Sept. 8 at the site
of a crossing accident that killed a mother and four children
in July.
Lights and gates
would have prevented the deaths, according to organizers
of the rally.
The crossing is
on County Road I between Edon and Montpelier near Route 80
and the Indiana line. The accident victims were from Indiana.
The National Rally
at the Rails will be from 1 to 5 p.m.
Ohio is joining
several other states in the rally. Ohio rail safety supporters
have held the rallies since 1994. This is the first year
of a multi-state rally.
"We choose
this crossing because of the fatality and the fact it could
have been prevented if there were gates and lights," said
Vicky Moore of the Angels on Track Foundation.
Moore and her husband,
Dennis, lost their son, Ryan, in a March 1995 car-train accident
on Deerfield Avenue NW in Lawrence Township. Two other teen-agers
died in the crash and three others-- including Ryan's brother,
Jason-- suffered serious injuries.
Six rail crossing-related
accidents occurred in Stark County last year, ranking fourth
in the state, according to the Public Utilities Commission
of Ohio.
In 1997, Stark County
had the most railroad crossings in the state, according to
figures provided by the Stark County Regional Planning Commission.
Ohio has the fifth
most crossings in the country, according to Angels on Track.
Illinois, Minnesota,
Kansas and Arkansas are joining in the rally, according to
Scott Gauvin, founder of the Coalition for Safer Crossings
in Illinois.
Gauvin
said his best friend died in an accident at a railroad
crossing near St. Louis about five years ago.
"We're a family," he said -- Myself, Vicky (Moore)
and anybody who has lost someone and anybody who's been on
a train and been a victim, not only in a collision, but in
derailments.
"The bond we
have fills the absence of our loved ones, and we're fighting
this together," Gauvin said.
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