(The Democrat-Herald posted the following story by Steve Lundeberg on its website on May 23.)
ALBANY, Ore. — Though technically a trespasser, the fisherman walking in the railroad’s right-of-way at Truax Creek just north of Albany was not a problem for Mike Stebens of the Union Pacific Railroad.
Had the fellow been fishing from the bridge, however, or driven around rail crossing gates en route to the stream – those would’ve been other matters altogether.
Stebens, manager of operating practice for the railroad, served as the engineer Tuesday on a special train that left Eugene on a four-day journey for Bellingham, Wash. Consisting of a dome coach sandwiched between two engines, the train is carrying law enforcement officers who are watching for traffic violations, trespassing and other infractions along the tracks. Other officers follow the train in patrol cars and motorcycles.
Designed to call attention to rail safety, the Officer on the Train project is sponsored by Operation Lifesaver, the Union Pacific, the Burlington Northern Santa Fe, the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission and the transportation departments of both Oregon and Washington. Operation Lifesaver is a national nonprofit group dedicated to promoting safety around railroad tracks.
This week isn’t the first time Officer on the Train has been used in the Northwest, but it is the first interstate effort in the region.
Stebens’ train headed north from the Eugene station at about 9:30 a.m. Tuesday. Like a fisherman who gets a strike on his first cast, it didn’t take long for the onboard observers to find what they were looking for.
“There we go,” Stebens said before the train had even traveled a mile, referring to a red-and-white blur zipping around a set of crossing gates – a motorcyclist in clear violation. Out of sight before he could be pulled over, though, he ended up being one who got away safely and ticket-free, this time.
Failure to stop for down gates and flashing red lights at a railroad crossing results in a $175 fine, according to Salem Police Officer Tony Moore. Of course, a ticket is nothing compared to being hit by a train.
Marty Faller, a Union Pacific conductor, says most freight trains are about a mile long. Their top speed is slower than freeway traffic, about 60 miles per hour, but they can weigh up to 10,000 tons, and their weight combined with their speed equals a stopping distance of a mile, minimum.
There is so much force behind a freight train, Faller says, that one could hit a car and be effectively unimpeded.
“You’ll hear it,” he said, “but you won’t feel it.”
Last year in Oregon there were 27 vehicle-train crashes at railroad crossings, resulting in one fatality and seven injuries. The year before, there were 34 crashes, seven fatalities and 10 injuries.
“In the year 1977, when we kicked off the program here, Oregon experienced 149 collisions at public highway rail crossings,” said Everett Cutter, state coordinator for Operation Lifesaver.
Those 149 accidents are roughly half as many as have occurred – 283 – in the preceding 10 years combined. During that time, there were 31 fatalities, including seven in 1998 as well as 2001, but there were also two years with zero deaths (1994 and 2000) and two other years with one (1997 in addition to 2002).
Trespasser casualties, however, are another story, Cutter said. Deaths and injuries to individuals on railroad property without permission have exceeded crossing casualties for several years now, both in Oregon and around the country.
Already this year, two people have been killed in Oregon and three others injured. There were five deaths each in 1999, 2001 and 2002 and six in 2000. During that four-year span, there were 31 injuries in addition to the 21 deaths.
Cutter said the Officer on the Train program is one element – enforcement – of Operation Lifesaver’s “Three E’s” of safety. The other two are engineering, in the form of continued innovation and research for improving safety at crossings, and education, in school classrooms and elsewhere.
Faller, whose regular run is from Portland to Eugene and back, said he observes “on a daily basis” the kind of behavior Operation Lifesaver is working to prevent.
“There’s a car or two every run, and we always see trespassers close to the tracks or on the tracks,” he said.
Between Eugene and Salem on Tuesday, the aforementioned angler was the only unauthorized person spotted near the tracks. And except for the biker, motorists were behaving well too.
In Salem, though, a handful of drivers failed to follow the railroad-crossing rules and earned a visit from a tipped-off police officer for their efforts.
“How much is the ticket for that?” Stebens asked Moore. “A hundred and seventy-five? Maybe they’ll learn; maybe they won’t.”
For more information on the Officer on the Train project or Operation Lifesver, call (503) 297-3267. Information is also available on the World Wide Web at www.oli.org/.