(The Associated Press circulated the following article by M.R. Kropko on July 27.)
CLEVELAND — The federal government – concerned that safety at privately owned railroad crossings hasn’t improved as it has at public crossings – is trying to put a new focus on the dangers of the crossings while determining what its role should be, a federal transportation official said on Wednesday.
“We’ve had a tremendous improvement in the past decade at public crossings,” said Joseph Boardman, Federal Railroad Administration chief. “Fatalities have been reduced between a third to half. We’ve only had about a 10 percent drop in the deaths at private crossings in the same period of time, and we’ve actually seen an uptick recently. We’re concerned about the private properties.”
There are about 94,000 private crossings owned by individuals, groups or businesses nationally used by freight and passenger trains, he said. The crossings provide access to residential, commercial, or agricultural areas not intended for public use.
There are about 400 private-crossing accidents each year, and between 30 and 40 fatalities, about 10 percent of all rail crossing deaths, he said.
“Every state has a lot of private crossings, and the agricultural states have more of those because of the nature of agriculture and the need of farm workers to get to their fields,” he said.
Public crossings often are marked with stop signs, gates and flashing lights.
“There may be some private crossings that have installed automatic warning devices, but they are not required to do so,” said Sheldon Senek, Ohio coordinator for Operation Lifesaver, a nonprofit, independent organization in Columbus.
In a series of national meetings to begin next month, the government wants to establish what its role should be in a matter that traditionally has been negotiated between property owners and railroads. The first public meeting will be in Fort Snelling, Minn., on Aug. 30, with others tentatively planned for North Carolina, California, and Louisiana this year.
Boardman chose a Cleveland rail yard to announce the initiative because he was part of a Norfolk Southern train ride to encourage police to enforce traffic laws at crossings.
“We try to do these types of things to get word out that railroads are dangerous,” said Rudy Husband, a Norfolk Southern spokesman. “We are not trying to hide that. So if you are in a car approaching a crossing, you need to exercise extreme caution.”
A Norfolk Southern train in January was involved in a collision with a car, killing a 31-year-old man in Lorain, about 30 miles west of Cleveland, at a private crossing where there have been 16 deaths since 1962.
Officials are close to finishing legal procedures to convert the property known in Lorain as “Killer Crossing” to public status to get funding for safety improvements, Lorain Safety Director Craig Miller said