(The following story by Gregory Richards appeared on The Virginian-Pilot website on August 31. R.E. Lassiter Jr. is a member of BLET Division 456 in Norfolk, Va.)
ABOARD NORFOLK SOUTHERN TRAIN 975 — Railroad conductor Gene Hall faced one of a train crewman’s worst fears two years ago: being aboard a train as it’s about to slam into a truck loaded with flammable chemicals crossing the tracks.
In Hall’s case, the truck was carrying propane over a little-used crossing in Dinwiddie County.
The crossing didn’t have lights and gates, and the truck didn’t stop to look for trains.
Hall’s Norfolk Southern Corp. locomotive was pulling 15 railcars at 50 miles per hour. At the last second, the driver heard the train’s whistle and was able to back the rear of the truck holding the propane tank off the tracks.
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It wasn’t far enough, however.
“We looked him right in the eye before we hit him,” Hall recalled Wednesday while waiting in the cab of a Northern Southern train about to leave on a trip to educate people on the importance of railroad crossing safety.
Wednesday’s special Operation Lifesaver train took about 100 people from Norfolk-based Norfolk Southern’s Lamberts Point terminal to Petersburg and back. Riding in two passenger railcars, those aboard – including public officials, police officers and railroad employees – were told that by acting smartly and safely, more deadly collisions like the one experienced by Hall don’t need to happen.
The passengers were able to see the tracks ahead just like a locomotive engineer because of a video camera mounted on the front of the train. The images were shown on televisions in each of the rail cars.
Among the safety tips given the group were not to drive around lowered railroad crossing arms and to look for oncoming trains even if a crossing’s warning lights aren’t flashing. Passengers were reminded that trains can’t stop quickly, sometimes taking more than a mile to come to rest, and that trains have the right of way on the tracks at all times.
“People don’t realize that a train can’t swerve out of the way for them,” said Bobby Lassiter, a Norfolk Southern locomotive engineer who spoke about safety on the train.
Last year in Virginia, 50 collisions were reported between trains and vehicles, with eight of those occurring in Hampton Roads, according to data from the Federal Railroad Administration. Two of the local incidents resulted in injuries, but there were no local deaths. In 2004, Virginia had 64 such incidents, of which 15 happened in Hampton Roads, producing five injuries.
Nationwide, there were 3,040 collisions between vehicles and trains in 2005, down from 3,074 in 2004, according to the railroad agency.
Those on board Wednesday also were urged not to trespass on train tracks, which are private property owned by the railroads. During the ride, one person spotted in Suffolk walking on a set of tracks beside those being used by the safety train was reported to the police, who ticketed the man, said Melvin C. Jones, the Virginia coordinator for Operation Lifesaver, the nonprofit railroad education group that helped organize the ride.
“Of all the places to walk, why walk on the tracks?” Jones said. “It’s a dangerous convenience.”
The train reached speeds of 60 miles per hour during the 4 1/2-hour ride, with engineer Joe Koziol dutifully sounding the locomotive’s bell and whistle as the train approached each of the dozens of crossings on the route. No vehicles were spotted darting between the crossing gates, although that typically occurs at least once per trip, said Darryl Norris, the Norfolk Southern road foreman riding in the cab.
That was a welcome change from last year. During a safety train excursion in August 2005 in North Carolina, the train struck a tractor-trailer that was unsuccessful at crossing the tracks. That driver was injured.
Several members of the General Assembly who participated in the ride – including Del. John J. Welch III, R-Virginia Beach, and Del. G. Glenn Oder, R-Newport News – praised it and other efforts to boost railroad safety.