(The following article by Caren Halbfinger was posted on the White Plains Journal News website on September 21.)
WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. — Improved safety measures have reduced the number of accidents between trains and other vehicles at railroad crossings over the past decade.
Since 1994, the number of accidents has dropped by 41 percent, and fatalities have been reduced by 50 percent nationwide, according to Federal Railroad Administration figures.
All grade crossings are protected in New York, but the measures vary. Safety measures include whistles, railroad crossing signs, flashing lights and gates.
These safety features are tested monthly, Metro-North Railroad spokeswoman Marjorie Anders said.
Should the power on a railroad crossing gate fail, the arm would come down and block the tracks.
Electricity keeps the arm up, and a battery backup is designed to kick in if the power fails, she said.
“The overwhelming cause of accidents at grade crossings is driver error,” Anders said. “It’s very sad that most of those are people who are trying to beat the train. Sometimes, it’s a suicide. Sometimes, it’s a joy rider. Sometimes, it’s a drunk or just bad judgment.”
Along Metro-North’s tracks, there are four public grade crossings on the Hudson Line, 30 on the Harlem Line and none on the New Haven Line.
The Hudson Line also has two private-access grade crossings, and the Harlem Line has four.
Five accidents between trains and vehicles occurred during a nearly 18-year period at the Green Lane railroad crossing in Bedford Hills, where a Metro-North train plowed into a stuck car carrier yesterday.
The accidents occurred between October 1982 and August 2000, Federal Railroad Administration records show.
But that grade crossing is not the most accident-prone in Westchester and Putnam counties. Federal Railroad Administration records show that two crossings, with eight crashes each involving trains and vehicles since 1975, share that dubious distinction.
They are the Hudson Avenue crossing in Peekskill and the Virginia Road crossing in North White Plains.
Anders said the most recent accident at Virginia Road was on Jan. 5, 2001, when a car pulling a boat trailer was hit, but no one was injured.
Before yesterday, the most recent crash at a Metro-North grade crossing was on June 30, at Largo Drive in Springdale, Conn., where a truck backed onto the tracks, Anders said.
Since 1975, when the Federal Railroad Administration began keeping such records, there have been 48 crashes between trains and vehicles at 24 crossings in Westchester and Putnam counties.
Thirty-five of those accidents took place in Westchester, with two fatalities and seven injuries, while 13 occurred in Putnam, with one fatality and 13 injuries, FRA spokesman Steve Kulm said.
By the end of this year, the FRA plans to issue new guidelines for crossing safety.
It is the agency’s goal to close unneeded crossings, but the federal government does not allocate separate funds for such work, so those projects compete with other state highway safety projects for funding