Risky
Rail Crossing Gets Safety Upgrade
5 Perished at site near Edon on July 1, 2001
Toledo
Blade
August
16, 2002
EDON, Ohio - Just
a year after a westbound train slammed into a car, killing
four family members and an another passenger at a rural Williams
County crossing, gates and warning lights are in place.
The work, which began this week, fulfills a pledge by safety
activists to help protect other motorists from a similar fate.
Terry Petre, who
on July 1, 2001, lost his wife, Wanda, 37, her daughters,
Amber, 14, and Chelsea, 11, her nephew, Bradley Krontz, 12,
and Chelsea Green, 10, said the installation is too late
to help his family.
But he said he is relieved that the crossing has finally received
attention.
"If it saves even one life, it will be worth it," he said yesterday
from his home in Angola, Ind.
Mrs. Petre, a homemaker and church youth group leader, and
her passengers were killed instantly when their car collided
with a Norfolk Southern train.
Neighbors in the area have said the crossing is dangerous because
it crosses the road at a sharp angle, making it hard to see
fast-moving trains. After the accident, members of a safety
activist group, Angels on Track Foundation, along with the
Ohio Rail Development Commission, pledged to seek improvements
at the crossing.
Vicky Moore, head of the grass-roots foundation in Canal Fulton,
Ohio, said the rate of progress on protecting unmarked rail
crossings is far too slow and depends upon a formula that involves
a set number of fatal accidents before a crossing is considered
for safety improvements.
"It’s always too little, too late," said Mrs. Moore, whose son,
Ryan, 16, was the eighth person to die within four years at a rural crossing
before it received an upgrade. "Any crossing that does not have gates
is a dangerous crossing."
Mrs. Moore said Ohio has about 2,700 crossings marked with
cross-buck signs and ranks fourth in the nation in the number
of vehicle-train fatalities.
The deadly Norfolk Southern crossing along Williams County
Road I was the scene of another accident involving five victims,
said Mrs. Moore. In an accident 47 years ago, she said, a mother
and her four children were killed.
County Road I is one of several along the busy rail corridor
where safety equipment is being installed.
Funds for crossing upgrades come from the state, but the issue
should be a concern for all government and railroad officials,
Mrs. Moore said.
Susan Kirkland, manager of safety programs for the Ohio Rail
Development Commission, said the County Road I project is part
of a concentrated effort to install safety gates and lights
along every Norfolk Southern crossing through Fulton and Williams
counties.
While studying the County Road I project after last year’s
accident, the state commission decided to take advantage of
the work crews’ presence and complete the entire stretch,
she said.
Every public crossing on east-west rail corridors will be protected
by gates and lights within the next several months, she said.
Exceptions will be found at private crossings and along a stretch
of tracks operated by a short-line railroad that shuttles rail
cars between businesses and major rail lines.
Funds for improvements comes from the federal government. Ohio’s
annual budget for railroad crossing safety improvements is
$15 million.
Each upgrade costs approximately $160,000, she said.
"We get $15 million a year and we’re spending all of it," Ms.
Kirkland said.
Tom Stroup, Williams County commissioner, said the county wrote
letters of support seeking the improvements. But he attributed
the improvement to grass-roots organizations that demanded
state action.
"They did a lot," Mr. Stroup said. "We have a lot of unguarded
crossings in the county and any time they improve public safety, we’re
extremely happy about it."
A spokesman for Norfolk Southern was traveling and unable
to comment on specifics involving the Williams County projects.
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