RATON, N.M. — “There’s a trespasser.” Conductor Alan Root spotted a man crossing the railroad tracks just seconds after the Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway freight train locomotive passed the spot, reports the Raton Range.
Root and some visitors were aboard the pair of locomotives during a recent run between Raton and Hoehne, Colo.
Railroad officials weren’t delivering any freight on this trip, but they were trying to deliver a strong message about public safety and legal regulations regarding railroad tracks. Each year, more than 450 people are killed and nearly 500 injured as a result of dangerous and illegal activities on or near railroad tracks. In 2001 in New Mexico, eight people died while trespassing on or near tracks and another eight died while attempting to make their way across railroad tracks at a designated road crossing.
Even warning signs are no guarantee against accidents when drivers or pedestrians choose to push their luck or are simply impatient.
“You can see them looking, and the car will be inching up,” says 30-year railroad veteran Root, describing what he often sees as a train approaches a road crossing without a barrier gate keeping cars off the tracks.
“They’re trying to decide whether to go or not.” And what are the motor-vehicle drivers basing their decisions on? Most of the time, says Root, it’s how long the train is – do they want to wait for it to pass or not? From 1996 to 1999, an average of 42 percent of the train-vehicle collisions at road-railroad crossings on Burlington Northern and Santa Fe’s (BNSF) system occurred at crossings with active warning devices such as automatic gates or flashing lights.
“Every time there’s a crossing, there’s potential (for trouble). Something could happen,” says Steve Patterson, a coordinator for BNSF’s Field Safety Support division.
Patterson and Root, who each have made many train treks over Raton Pass, were among the BNSF officials and employees who hosted area law enforcement officers from Raton and Trinidad on a train trip earlier this month from Raton to Hoehne, Colo., and back to show the danger that is present near railroad tracks and to ask law enforcement for its help in keeping people away from tracks. Patterson noted that the chances of survival for a person in a motor vehicle in an accident are 40-percent worse if the vehicle collides with a train than if the vehicle collides with another motor vehicle. However, wandering on or near railroad tracks can be just as dangerous, or even more so, at areas away from road crossings.
At railroad crossings, trains are moving at about 30 mph or less. In other areas outside of towns, though, freight trains can get going up to 70 mph, and passenger trains can reach even higher speeds. It can take a freight train up to a mile and a half or more to stop when traveling at 50 mph or more.
Most freight trains that travel Raton Pass carry loads weighing 3,000 to 5,000 tons, but some can carry as much as 11,000 tons. Such weight renders the trains’ braking systems somewhat useless when gravity is figured in on Raton Pass, which is the highest point on the old Santa Fe Railway system.
“You get 11,000 tons going down the mountain, you can’t stop,” says Root. That means it’s up to others to stay clear of the tracks. The quaint picture of young boys walking along railroad tracks in search of their next adventure isn’t really so quaint. Actually, such a scene is illegal. Railroad companies like BNSF own a 100-foot right-of-way along their tracks – 50 feet on either side of the tracks.
Anyone venturing inside that area is trespassing. Railroad officials have asked local law enforcement to arrest trespassers, and have promised to pursue prosecution of trespassers. The purpose is far more than just protecting private property; it’s safety and avoiding tragedy. Railroad engineers, who “drive” the train, are often the last people to see another person alive if that other person has come onto the tracks or too close to them.
Trains overhang the tracks by at least three feet on either side, so injuries and fatalities can occur if a person is close to the tracks, even if not on the tracks. And freight trains do not travel on a predictable schedule, causing them to surprise most people who choose to illegally wander along tracks.
“It’s tragic for the families (of those killed),” says Christine Aldeis, a manager with BNSF’s Field Safety Support. “It’s tragic for the train crew to be a witness to this, and nothing they can do to prevent it.” In July, Colfax County was the site of two train-pedestrian accidents. A Raton man was severely injured by a passing train after he wandered close to the tracks in Raton. In Springer, an 83-year-old man was killed when a train struck him as he was on the tracks. It remains a frustrating situation for railroad officials and employees.
“People don’t go play on I-25,” says Aldeis, “but they’ll walk down the tracks.”