(The following story by Steven Rosenberg appeared on the Boston Globe website on October 28. M.C. Layman is a member of BLET Division 57 in Boston.)
BOSTON — As the city prepared for an educational forum tonight on train safety, the engineer who was driving the train that killed a Beverly teenager in 1999 has called on the city to end its whistle ban at MBTA train crossings.
Mark Layman, a former engineer on the T’s North Shore commuter line, said he believes that the only way to prevent further deaths at the 17 railroad crossings in the city is to allow trains to blow their whistles. ”Anywhere where there’s traffic — where there’s car traffic, where there’s pedestrian traffic — you should whistle,” Layman said.
Two weeks ago, David Siljeholm, a Manchester teenager, was killed by a commuter train at a crossing where whistles are not required. Since the accident, the state has ordered trains to blow their whistles at the intersection of the accident and asked communities to voluntarily end whistle bans, in order to increase public safety. The scene of the fatality, at the intersection of Hale and West streets, is the only train intersection in the city where warning whistles are now sounding.
The meeting at 7 tonight in the Beverly Senior Center, will feature a representative from Operation Lifesaver, a Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority program that teaches community volunteers to educate students and residents about the dangers of trains.
Mayor William Scanlon Jr. of Beverly, who will attend the meeting, opposes ending the whistle bans. He said that if he lifted the ban, whistles would sound thousands of times a day in Beverly.
”I think if you hear horns going off that often I’m not sure people would listen,” he said.
Beverly’s 17 train crossings are the most in any community served by the MBTA. Its crossings have been whistle-free for decades, according to city and MBTA officials.
Tonight’s meeting will be held one day after the fifth year anniversary of the death of Andrew Cesa, who was struck by the train Layman was driving. Cesa was wearing headphones as he walked along the Beverly tracks on Oct. 27, 1999. After being passed by a southbound train, Cesa stepped inside the northbound rails and into the path of another train. At that point, Cesa was 30 feet from the train, far less than the quarter-mile required for an emergency stop at 60 miles per hour, Layman said.
Annmarie Cesa said she would observe the anniversary of her son’s death with her family. She also said she planned to attend tonight’s meeting.
”I think there hasn’t been enough public education,” said Cesa, a Beverly School Committee member who said she is undecided about lifting the whistle ban. ”We need to start with the children and work our way up. Since we have the most crossings in the state, we need to be educated.”
Peter Johnson, who formed Beverly Lobby Against Sounding Trainhorns and who helped organize tonight’s meeting, declined to respond to Layman’s charge that the current whistle ban compromises public safety.
”A whistle ban is nuts,” Layman said. ”I don’t think the people making the decisions have all of the information.”
Layman said he believes that Siljeholm’s death could have been prevented if a whistle had blown at the intersection the morning the teenager rode his bike around the crossing gate and into the path of the train. Layman said it was possible that Siljeholm never even heard the train, because the engine was 400 feet behind the lead car.
”You can stand with your back to that train; turn around, and it will be a half second away from you, and not even hear it,” Layman said. ”It’s all welded rail. There’s no clickity clack.”
From 1989 to 2001, when he worked on the North Shore commuter line, Layman faced many near-accidents, he said. ”Every day there’s close calls. You don’t ever hear about that.”
Layman said during his time as an engineer, motorists, pedestrians, and bicyclists regularly ignored the gates at train crossings, sneaking past the incoming trains. People who try to circumvent the gate crossings are called ”trespassers,” said Layman, and are reported by the train’s engineer to the MBTA’s Boston dispatcher’s office.
Lydia Rivera, an MBTA spokeswoman, confirmed that dispatchers do receive calls about trespassers, but could not provide statistics about the number of near misses in recent years.
Layman, who is now on disability after he was hit in the head by a rock while driving a train in June 2001, suggested that city and state officials ride along with a train engineer for a week to witness the close calls.
”Have somebody get on a locomotive and watch how many times you miss killing someone,” he said, ”or how many times you just miss hitting a car driving around the gates.”