"What Can I Do?"
Here Are Six Steps That Experts Say Should Be Taken:

1. National Standards need to be developed to determine which crossings are dangerous, and what steps are necessary to make them safe (Efforts by the FRA to explore national standards were suspended in August of 1997 for "lack of data".
   
   
2. Communities need to examine their crossings before an accident occurs to determine which ones need to be upgraded or closed. It shouldn't take a tragedy to get a dangerous crossing fixed.
   
   
3. States need to invest a single government agency with the authority to make decisions about railroad crossings. Frequently, railroads own the tracks, governments own the highways, and no single agency is looking at the intersection.
   
   
4. Approval and installation of gates and lights need to be much quicker. At a crossing already deemed dangerous, the current average from initiation is two or three years. Working with state and railroad officials, Sen. Mike DeWine (R., Ohio) created a program that reduced the approval time in Ohio to nine months. Other states should follow.
   
   
5. More money should be targeted for rail crossings. States with a small population but a large number of dangerous crossings should receive more money to target this problem.
   
   
6. Perhaps the most important, even with safety measures in place, drivers need to be cautious.

—From Readers Digest, February 1998, Bob Trebilcock

Q: Are the railroads proactive when it comes to public safety?
A: “It’s not the railroad’s duty to keep people who cross their tracks safe. It’s the public good that is a result of avoiding the accident, so the public good should be paid by the public.” (Chas. Dettmann, Vice President of Safety – AAR, “Missing Signals", NBC5.com by Renee Ferguson, 3/1/99)

“The railroad chose not to pay for improvements itself, waiting instead for government funding, which is its normal practice, the Supreme Court said.” (“Punitive Award in Railroad Crossing Accident” – Associated Press, Union Pacific vs. Alcorn, News Tribune 5/30/01)

“BNSF was aware that the crossing was dangerous as far back as 1975 and 1976, when other non-fatal accidents occurred there, the plaintiff argued. But in the time since, the railroad did nothing to correct the problem.” (“Jury Orders BNSF to Pay $6 Million” – Billings Gazette)

“This railroad, like so many big corporations, made an economic decision to be reactive instead of proactive.” said Jim Frasier. “If Union Pacific had stepped up and acted responsibly, performing its duty to maintain safety along its right-of-way, this tragedy would never have occurred.” (“Railroad Crossing Claims Three Lives Before Safety Upgrade”, Case File, Certiorari, Summer, 1998)

“The railroads don’t spend their own money to improve crossing safety because they believe, and courts have upheld, that crossing safety equipment is a public responsibility.” Tom White AAR spokesman, Journal & Courier, 7/7/02 “Gates Have Track Record of Saving Lives”.

Q: Isn’t it always the motorist’s fault if they are involved in an accident? How could they not see or hear the train?
A: “There are approximately 160,000 public highway-railroad intersections, of which only 20% have gates. And even when there are audible warning devices, they may 'fail' to meet their objective of alerting motorists to an oncoming train because of highway vehicle design and environmental factors.” As a result, more than 90 percent of all rail-related fatalities involved either grade crossings or trespassers, and of these deaths approximately 60 percent occur at crossings with only passive warning devices.” (NTSB Safety Study, July 21, 1998)

“Many people think rail safety education is the answer, but how do you educate the motorist who can’t see or hear an oncoming train?” (Gary Long, Transportation Engineering Coordinator, University of Florida)

“It’s been known for decades that the more signals you put at a crossing, the less likelihood you have of collisions between vehicles and trains.” (Theodore E. Cohn, Professor of Vision Science and Bioengineering, University of California, “Rail Gates Coming at Site of Fatal Collision”, San Francisco Chronicle, 7/17/2001)

Q: The only cause for train/car accidents is driver carelessness, trying to "beat the train”, or ignorant and impatient drivers.
A: In order for crossing accidents to be prevented in the future, common stereotypes used by the media and general public must be eliminated. The following are ALL factors that can cause rail crossing accidents:

• Lack of protected crossings (gates)
  
• Sight obstructions such as: (trees and tall/thick vegetation on railroads right-of-way blocking motorists’ view, battery box, buildings, other trains, etc.)
  
• Physical layout of crossing (humped, double tracks, curved track)
• Roadway alignment with tracks
• Automated safety equipment malfunctions (gates up-train coming, gates down for extended periods of time-no train, short-time warnings) The Texas Division of Emergency Management’s Operations Center received 14,534 calls reporting problems with crossings in 1997. That’s over 1,211 calls a month.
• Railroads not following safety procedures (disconnected equipment, flagmen, blowing whistle, exceeding speed limits, etc.)
• No uniformity for crossing protection from state to state (Private crossings often have no signs or protection, gates and lights, lights only, crossbuck only, Buckeye crossbuck (Ohio), stop sign only, or nothing at all)
  
• Driver’s behavior to proceed without extra caution and a heightened awareness to “Always Expect a Train"
  
  

Q: If I come to a unprotected crossing (crossbuck only) I should know a train is coming because I’ll hear the horn or whistle?
A. Whistle posts are placed without regard to train speeds or whistle audibility at the crossing. Regulations for horns, bells, and whistles were not based on the ability of people to hear them, but rather are statutorily based on the distance from the crossing. Many drivers involved in accidents don’t hear a train’s horn until 2 seconds or less before impact.

Law requires the sequence to begin a quarter-mile from the crossing and be repeated until the engine of the train occupies the intersection, but they don’t consider the masking effect of local factory noise, diesel truck engines, school kids, motorcycles, modern sound- proof cars, and other external influences on the ability of a motorist to hear a whistle.

SWIFT DEVELOPMENT ACT OF 1994 – Required locomotive horns or whistles be sounded upon approaching every public grade crossing except where: 1) No significant risk to persons; 2) Use of horn as warning device is not practical; or 3) Supplemental Safety Measures (SSM) fully compensate for the absence of the audible warning provided by a horn or whistle. Most states have statutes or regulations requiring trains provide an audible warning on approach to public grade crossings. HOWEVER, THERE IS NO FEDERAL REQUIREMENT.

Q: There are laws and regulations requiring the railroads to be responsible for public safety?
A. The railroads are privately owned entities funded with public funding, which includes land surveys, rights of eminent domain, massive land grants, low-interest loans, public stock purchases, and grants of financial assistance. They have a shared responsibility for ensuring the safety of the public forced to cross their tracks. However, railroad law was developed during the industrial expansion. Millions of acres were given to railroads because of massive corruption and the outright control of state legislatures. In most states, localities have no control of the tracks going through their communities. The only source of relief is with state agencies, which often lack the power to force the railroads to comply.

“The Federal Railroad Administration has been asleep at the wheel. They have allowed the railroads to regulate themselves with respect to highway crossings.” Rick Vuenick, legal policy director for Citizen Action, Special Project: Railroad Crossings—Tragedy on the Tracks, Gannett News Service, 5/15/2000.

Q. When gates and lights are installed at a dangerous crossing, do the railroads pay for the equipment and installation since they own the tracks?
A. No. Taxpayer dollars (federal/state) for the most part pay for the safety devices. Even though the average upgrade project costs approximately $150,000, and federal/state taxpayer funds are used, there is no competitive bidding process. The railroads submit a cost breakdown (material, labor, plus additives) and states pay. There is no agency making sure we as taxpayers are getting the best for our tax dollars.