GREENSBORO, N.C. — As Amtrak’s northbound Carolinian train chugs across Elm Street, a Jeep Cherokee makes a sharp U-turn near the lowered gates, reports the Greensboro News-Record.
At Franklin Boulevard, the train slows past a crossing where someone had plowed through the lowered gates earlier in the day. The engineer blows the horn at a teen who, a few feet away, scurries over the tracks.
Looking down on these scenes, locomotive engineer Tony Francis wonders if these daredevils were impatient enough to risk their lives to get where they were going.
Because that is exactly what they did.
“You’d be surprised the chances people take,” Francis said. “And we can’t do anything.”
Francis and other engineers say they see people playing on tracks, cars racing through gates and other mischief in their path every day.
This week, some engineers are more nervous on the job as Amtrak’s trains begin speeding through tiny Triad towns faster, up to 34 mph faster in some places, after millions of dollars were spent to repair and improve crossings.
“It’s more stressful,” Francis said. “I see every day what happens and I know a lot of people haven’t gotten the word that the speeds have gone up and one of these days, someone is going to lose their life because of it.”
Deaths and train collisions already are common. Since 1992, there have been 1,325 collisions on North Carolina tracks, resulting in 120 fatalities. Another 174 deaths occurred when people trespassing on tracks were hit by oncoming trains.
Last week, a Department of Transportation employee driving a diesel truck the size of a dump truck was struck by a train in Craven County. Both the train engineer and truck driver were unhurt, but the engine was damaged, the truck was totaled and the diesel it was hauling spilled all over the area. Preliminary reports show the driver simply wasn’t paying attention.
This week, a drunken man in Burlington stumbled onto the tracks. The engineer tried to stop but hit the man at 25 mph, dragging him 10 feet. The man, luckily, escaped with minor injuries.
To make crossings safer for motorists, the state began the “sealed corridor program” in 1995 to reduce the number of crossings and add protective devices at crossings.
Warning devices now guard 2,250 of the 4,420 public crossings in North Carolina.
Between Raleigh and Charlotte, about 25 crossings have been closed and 89 improved. In Alamance and Guilford counties, costs ranged from $41,900, to update the crossing at Gilliam Road near Burlington, to $144,000 for improvements at the Oakdale Road crossing in Jamestown.
So far, the hard work seems to have paid off. The number of vehicle and train collisions has decreased in the past 10 years, from 169 in 1991 to 79 in 2001.
And in May, the sealed corridor program, paid for by $10.3 million in federal funds and nearly $2 million in state funds, was cited in a report to Congress by the Federal Railroad Administration as a model program that needed to be followed nationally.
More protected crossings are in the works as the state completes $24 million worth of improvements for lines between Raleigh and Charlotte by the year 2004.
Still, improvements need to be made in the publics’ mind, engineers say. Racing a train simply isn’t worth the risk.
Much of Francis’ route between High Point and Burlington is concealed by forest on either side of the tracks. Crossings are difficult to see, hidden behind trees, some around curves in the tracks.
In clearings, driveways cross the tracks to individual houses. Here there are no warning signals. Some houses sit just a car’s length away from the tracks. Francis blows the horn every few seconds.
Behind his engine, he is hauling seven passenger cars, a load that when traveling 75 mph, as it does between towns, can take almost a mile to stop.
Several years ago, he was traveling with engineer Linwood Harris, now a service manager, when the pair had two fatal collisions within a week. Both involved men who were sitting on the tracks to commit suicide.
“They don’t realize they’re involving someone else,” Harris said of the men. “These guys have got to go home and carry the guilt.
Harris, who drove trains for 25 years, said he lost count of the number of collisions in which he was involved.
“We just can’t explain why people do the things they do,” Harris said. “They just don’t understand how dangerous it is.”
RAILROAD CRASHES
Total number of crashes at railroad crossings in North Carolina between 1992 and 2002:
Collisions: 1,325
Fatalities: 120
Injuries: 594
Fatalities of people trespassing on tracks (playing, walking, etc. on tracks): 174
RAIL SAFETY TIPS
Never walk on railroad tracks — walking near or on tracks is illegal. Tracks are on private property and anyone found near them can be charged with trespassing.
Look both ways before crossing tracks.
Only cross tracks in designated crossing areas.
Do not cross tracks when the gates are down or lights are flashing.
Never stop your car on railroad tracks. If your car stalls on the tracks, get out immediately and call 911. If a train is coming when your car stalls, get out immediately and run toward the direction the train is coming from to avoid flying debris if the train strikes your car.
Be aware that trains can operate any time of the day or night and approach from either direction.
FASTER TRAINS
Amtrak’s Piedmont and Carolinian passenger trains new and old speeds:
Graham: 35 mph to 59 mph
Burlington: 35 mph to 59 mph
Elon: 55 mph to 59 mph
Gibsonville: 50 mph to 59 mph
For freight trains, top speeds that now range from 15 to 45 mph in these same towns have jumped to 49 mph.
Speeds scheduled to change in October:
Mebane: 25 mph to 59 mph
Speeds scheduled to change near the end of the year:
One-mile stretch through east Greensboro to the South Elm Street crossing downtown: 20 mph to 59 mph