(The following article by Joyce Russell was published in the January 14 issue of the Munster (Ind.) Times.)
PORTAGE, Ind. — City officials were saddened, but not shocked, when they heard the news that two teenagers were killed Saturday night at the CSX railroad crossing at Hamstrom Road.
They’ve been banging the drum for years — since a second track was added and train traffic increased dramatically — that the intersection was an accident waiting to happen.
Ironically, officials learned Monday that the process to install gates at the crossing has been in motion in Indianapolis since October. Gates could be installed by early next year.
Protected only by flashing lights, officials have spoken to state and railroad officials about the need for gates at that crossing.
“When they put those (the second set of tracks) in, we made the comment that it would be a matter of time before a citizen would get killed. It happened. And it will happen again,” Fire Chief Tim Sosby said.
Amy Easter, 17, of South Haven, and Lucas Travis, 16, of Portage, were killed Saturday night when the van Amy was driving was struck by a westbound freight train at the crossing. Mark Easter, 16, was also seriously injured in the accident.
Amy Easter was driving northbound on Hamstrom. She and others were stopped at the tracks. The lights were flashing and a train was traveling eastbound through the crossing. When it passed, a car in front of the teens crossed the double set of tracks.
Amy, too, began to proceed through the crossing, apparently not seeing the second train.
Officials had laid out the same scenario as a potential danger. They’d also raised concerns about trains that park in the area, worried a driver may think the lights are flashing because of the parked train, proceed through the crossing and not see a second train on the other set of tracks, causing an accident with similar results.
City Engineer Craig Hendrix said the installation of gates at the crossing was put on a state priority list by the Indiana Department of Transportation in October and is presently in the design process.
“Until today we didn’t know it had made the cut,” Hendrix said Monday.
Engineering Services Manager Steve Hull, of INDOT’s design division, confirmed CSX is presently designing a set of standard gates to be installed at the crossing.
The gates will be paid for through Federal Highway Safety Funds funneled through INDOT.
Hull said it takes about two years from the time a crossing is put on the priority list until the project is completed. However, since the process began last fall, it could be completed in 16 to 18 months. Once the design is completed, it will take another couple of months for paperwork involving the funding to clear. Then, Hull said, CSX will be given the authorization to begin construction and will have a year to complete the project.
Hull said improvements at 90 to 100 crossings are federally funded each year in Indiana. The crossings make the priority list by ranking high in a formula that predicts accident rates at crossings based on the number of tracks, vehicular and train traffic and other factors. The higher the risk of an accident, the sooner a crossing is placed on the priority list.
Each year the state receives $5 million in federal funds earmarked specifically for railroad safety. It receives another $20 million in optional safety funds, of which about half is used for railroad safety projects.
There are about 6,000 crossings in the state. Twenty-five percent of them are protected by gates and lights. Another 25 percent, like the crossing at Hamstrom Road, are protected by lights only. The remainder, about 3,200 crossings, have no protection.
Lights installed at a crossing that has had no protection reduces the risk of accidents by 70 percent, Hull said. Adding gates drops that risk by only another 15 percent, he added. A risk remains because people can still choose to go around downed gates.
The installation of standard gates at Hamstrom Road will cost about $150,000 to $160,000, Hull said.
While some city officials want the type of gates installed that would prohibit people from driving around the downed warning system, Hull said that won’t happen.
The cost for those gates is about double the cost of a standard set of gates. As a result of the cost, officials would have to cut another project from the list, which won’t be done.
“On the other side, there is not a lot we can do to speed it up,” Hull said.
Until then, Street Superintendent Steve Charnetzky said the city will install additional high intensity signs at the crossing to warn drivers there could be two trains on the double set of tracks.
But that news made it no less frustrating for city officials.
Councilman Mark Oprisko, who headed the city’s Traffic Commission last year, said improving safety at that intersection and others in the city has been a priority.
“I feel like I’m personally accountable for that. It is something I’ve wanted for years. Maybe if I would have pushed harder, it would have been done,” Oprisko said, calling the deaths of the two teens a “tragic loss.”
Mayor Doug Olson said the city started the push to improve safety six months ago, and has been working with the Four Cities Consortium in Lake County to draw on their expertise in getting things done involving the railroads.
“The problem is it takes forever to get anything going,” Olson said. He added that the Hamstrom Road crossing is not the only problem area in the city. “Hamstrom is the most dangerous. There are over 100 trains that go through the crossing each day,” he said.
Hendrix added that the lack of gates is only one problem with the railroads. There is also the problem of parked trains that often block access to areas of the city or entire developments such as Salt Creek Mobile Home Park.
Officials plan to meet with a consultant today to receive cost estimates for improvements at various crossings throughout the city. That will give them an idea of how much it will cost to upgrade crossings within the city in hopes of preventing accidents elsewhere.