When Tragedy Hits Too Close To Home--82 Fatalities in California Train Collisions Last Year

I agree with many of Mr. Kandel's statements, especially about trespassing on railroad property. No one should do it. However, Mr. Kandel fails to mention a number of important issues about railroad crossing crashes and Operation Lifesaver. First, he fails to say even one word about railroad responsibility for safety at crossings. I'm not surprised. Operation Lifesaver was created by the largest railroad in the U.S., Union Pacific, and the message from Day One has been that all crashes are the fault of the motorist. Mr. Kandel might have mentioned that the train crew is required by federal and state laws and by their own operating manual to sound the horn at a certain distance from every crossing. I have investigated over 300 crossing crashes and have been studying and researching crossing crashes for 20 years. I have caught train crew either failing to properly sound the horn for a crossing or not sounding it at all in hundreds of incidents. If there are no flashing lights or gates at a crossing, the motorist has only his/her sight and hearing to detect a train and yield the right-of-way. Take away the sound of the horn and the motorist must be able to see the approaching train. Mr. Kandel mentioned "ditch lights." They help a little, but he should have mentioned that locomotives have NO side lights whatsoever. Take a look at the tractor-trailers on our highways. They are lit up like Christmas trees. Not so, trains. Maybe Mr. Kandel would like to tell the public why the railroad industry has failed to place any lights on the sides of their locomotives and why the industry argued with the FRA for over 30 years about putting reflective tape on the rail cars. The FRA finally told the RR industry in 2005 to place the tape on the rail cars, but the industry has until 2015 to get it done! Additionally, Mr. Kandel might have said something about the laws in many states requiring the railroads to clear sight-obstructing vegetation from crossings. There are 10's of 1000's of crossings in the U.S. that violate a state law on vegetation removal. If the driver can't see the train coming due to trees, bushes or weeds, how does Mr. Kandel expect the driver to see the train and yield? Another glaring omission by Mr. Kandel is the fact that the railroad industry hates lights and gates (many former RR employees have told me that), because the RR industry doesn't want to maintain them. According to my sources in the industry, the RR management loves nothing better than a pressure-treated wooden post and a crossbuck sign. There won't be any maintenance of that sign for 20 or more years. A former Union Pacific Vice President admitted on the witness stand in a 1999 Missouri trial that flashing lights and gates can reduce the chance of a collision at a RR crossing by 90 percent! So, it is clear to any intelligent person that we should have the majority of the crossings guarded by lights and gates. But a majority of the crossings in the U.S. have nothing but that crossbuck sign. In my view, that means that the railroad industry puts their money ahead of human life. They have increased the price they charge our government agencies to upgrade a crossbuck-only crossing to flashing lights and gates to an astounding $200,000 or more. Again, my sources in the industry say that the parts and labor aren't worth a penny over $50,000. AND, to make matters much worse, the U.S. railroad industry continues to use a train detection system, called the Track Circuit, which dates back to 1872! Inventors, including myself, have created high-tech. systems that utilize strobe lights at the crossing and magnetic train detection, but the railroads aren't interested. In my opinion, they aren't interested because it would cost money to upgrade to a high-tech. system. You might ask why our federal government, especially the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) would allow the railroad industry to keep using an obsolete and dangerous train detection device that can be easily defeated by rust on just one rail. If you look closely at the FRA, you will see an agency that has been extremely cozy with the very industry it is supposed to police. In my opinion, the FRA is more of a "cheerleading section" for the RR industry than a policing agency. A New York Times investigation in 2003 discovered that the FRA only investigated 4 out of over 3,000 crossing crashes and that the acting director of the FRA was taking all-expense-paid vacations to New England, all paid for by the top lobbyist at the Union Pacific Railroad. Mr. Kandel and OL point to the reduction of deaths and injuries at crossings since 1972. Yes, there has been a significant reduction. I would point to the installation of a lot of flashing lights and gates at crossings all over the U.S. as the real reason. The states forced the railroads to install the warning devices---the railroads didn't volunteer to put the equipment in! Mr. Kandel could have told all of us about the Texas DPS and how they get over 300 calls a week from motorists reporting MALFUNCTIONING flashing lights and gates, but I'm not surprised he didn't. You see, if he did, he might be asked to explain WHY so many crossings have malfunctions. He'd have to explain that the 1872 Track Circuit all railroads use is (1) NOT FAIL-SAFE (2) is prone to failure from rust and other contaminants on the rails and (3) is prone to "false activation" from salt water, worn-out relays and something called "tail ring." Don't hold your breath waiting for him to explain these malfunctions. The RR industry, Operation Lifesaver and the FRA don't want the public to know about them. The bottom line is this: the railroad industry in the U.S. has a 175+ year history of killing and injuring people and blaming everyone but themselves for the carnage. I have a beautiful video of a former Conrail Vice President telling CBS News in 1993 that, "We're not responsible for what happens at a railroad crossing." Get the picture?

The way I see it, the key consideration here is that continued reductions in the numbers of these incidents with their corresponding casualties is paramount until such time that such incidents are non-existent. Perhaps the best way to prevent such occurrences is via the elimination of the grade crossing itself, either through crossing closures or grade separated structures; e.g., an overhead or underpass.

In my op-ed above, the bicyclist in question that was struck by the speeding passenger train at a crossing equipped with the full compliment of lights, bells and gates (including median-equipped lights, bells and gates) no less, appeared to have no clue whatsoever as to the approaching train in question as this particular bicyclist blew past this crossing, what with the activated equipment and such. With the rear portion of the bicycle being clipped by the corner of the plow on the front of the locomotive, the resultant force spun the bicycle around and luckily, threw the cyclist away from the train rather than underneath it which should help explain why the extent of the injuries sustained were what they were. Quite astonishingly, the person on the bicycle did not even look up or toward the oncoming locomotive! In my opinion, the person riding the bike appeared to be oblivious to or understood the gravity of the entire situation just before and during this horrific collision.

Furthermore, in another occurrence at this same crossing where a roadway once paralleled the railroad in question for about a 1/4-mile, a person in a raised pickup truck apparently decided that they did not want to wait in the line of traffic already stopped at the crossing, then proceeded to drive around the back side of the lowered gate arm where the gate counterweight was attached, drove uphill onto the railroad-owned right of way and managed to get across the crossing before the train entered. So even with the full compliment of lights, gates and bells, the automatic warning equipment in both cases were disregarded by both the involved bicyclist and pickup truck driver.

As a matter of fact, two pedestrians were killed at this one crossing as well.

Eventually, this particular crossing was replaced with a grade separated underpass and from what I understand, the cost of the entire project totalled $15 million.

My point here is, even though there are those crossings that may be equipped with all the latest in terms of crossing health monitoring technology, predictive or motion sensing warning device technology, installed cameras as a way to capture on film motorists, pedestrians, bicyclists disregarding the activated warning equipment, not only putting themselves in danger and quite possibly the lives of others, incidents at highway-railroad grade crossings happen. It is also my understanding that approximately 50 percent of these incidents happen at crossings outfitted with some level of automatic warning. One could almost conclude that in certain cases, the warning equipment alone may not have been enough to have kept some from becoming a statistic.

The bottom line is, without continued enforcement, engineering improvements and education aimed at reducing and ultimately eliminating incidents at crossings and in between - on the tracks and property itself, devastating and unnecessary crossing-related tragedies will continue to make headlines. With this in mind, it would behoove all interested parties to do their parts to see that incidents don't occur.

What's more, if the information imparted in the above op-ed helps in preventing yet another death or injury as a result of yet another one of these tragic and unnecessary occurrances, it will have been well worth the effort it took for me to get this information posted and in the public domain.

Thankfully, Bob, the personal injury laywer and wanna-be magnet-guru inventor is too verbose to be heard, thinking quantity of words and outrageously colorful misdirected conspiratorial insults directed at the railroad will get him heard. You say what Bob? Yawn . . . . bottom line, these incidents will continue, because a very, very tiny percentage of the population don't notice million-ton horned and motored behmoths bearing down on them. Look both ways and don't sweat the small stuff, weedhopper.

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