(The following story by Margo Rivers appeared on the Nashville Tennessean website on November 7. Jerry McCloud is Secretary-Treasurer of BLE Division 129 in Nashville.)
NASHVILLE — Every time engineer Jerry McCloud passes the crossing near Sanbyrn Drive in Murfreesboro, he thinks about the man who committed suicide on the tracks nearly five years ago.
”My conductor said the man was sitting on the track, then stood up,” said McCloud as he approached the site on a recent sunny-morning trip. ”When I looked, the man’s back was to us and his head was down. By the time I put my hand on the brakes, it was over.”
The 25-year railroad veteran said he had a ”sick feeling.” A train running at full speed often comes to a stop a mile down the tracks after the emergency brakes are activated, he said.
During fatal accidents, most people tend not to focus on the effects these accidents have on railroad workers. As unwilling eyewitnesses, employees say they constantly struggle with the knowledge they killed someone, even though it wasn’t their fault.
”It’s very traumatic for them,” said Jeff Middleton, who as a CSX yardmaster oversees the midway point known as Nashville’s downtown railroad gulch. ”I have to make sure my crew has a sound mind to continue the trip. Some can’t.”
McCloud and conductor D.R. Burgess travel between Nashville and Chattanooga, delivering products bound for other parts of the country. On a recent trip, they were dropping off trailers and containers designated for Jacksonville, Fla.
In preparation for the trip, they received their work orders detailing the train’s cargo, weight and length. They also braced themselves mentally for what would lie ahead for them on the tracks.
”In school, they tell you that you’re going to have an accident. It’s a matter of when,” McCloud said. ”At certain crossings, you know that someone is going to take chances.”
As the train meandered through parts of Davidson and Rutherford counties, McCloud and Burgess’ trip was pleasantly uneventful ? and unusual, they said. Nearly 20 minutes after departing the train yard at 11th Avenue, a homeless man crossed the tracks dangerously close to the train.
At the Richards Road crossing a few miles down the track, a man also walked across the tracks, despite the fact that the warning gates were down and McCloud was sounding the train’s whistle.
”That’s nothing,” McCloud said.
Burgess explained that people, especially the homeless and teenagers, were always coming out of nowhere, walking close to the train or standing in the middle of the tracks. ”I can’t tell if they’re playing chicken or not,” said Burgess, a 29-year railroad veteran. ”About a year ago, I saw a man using tracks as a pillow. We stopped in time because we were going 10 mph. His friend dragged him off the track after we stopped.”
Of the many crossings they pass every day, the ones at Blue Hole Road in Antioch and Sanbyrn Drive in Murfreesboro usually have given them the most trouble. Before the state placed gates at the Blue Hole Road crossing several months ago, not a day passed that someone wasn’t trying to beat the train. ”Those gates took a lot of the ‘excitement’ out of Blue Hole Road,” Burgess said. ”In Murfreesboro, we’ve had an awfully bad luck lately with the accidents.”
So far this year, three people have died in two crossing accidents in Murfreesboro.
Many railroad employees said inattention and impatience were the main reasons for most crossing accidents. ”They think because the train is so long, it’s going to take a long time to pass,” McCloud said. ”It usually takes one minute and 12 seconds to get across the crossing.”