(The following story by Roger Brown appeared on the Bristol Herald Courier website on August 5, 2010.)
BRISTOL, Tenn. — Even after 34 years as a railroad man, Norfolk Southern conductor Wayne Manning said he struggles when sitting in a car to accurately judge the speed and distance of a train roaring down a track.
“A train can really create an optical illusion when you’re in a car, even when you think you’ve got a pretty well-trained eye,” Manning said.
“You drive over railroad tracks and think you have more time and space to beat a train than you actually have. But you don’t, so why do it? It’s much easier to be safe about it,” he said.
The latter point was one Manning and several other Norfolk Southern workers drove home Wednesday while spending 90 minutes stopping motorists as they approached a Norfolk Southern crossing at Hazelwood Street and Arkansas Avenue. The workers gave motorists brochures on railroad-crossing safety – and advice on paying attention to warning signals.
“I’m all for things like this,” Deanna Reed of Bristol, Tenn., said after Manning, offering a polite reminder to drive safely, stepped toward her Buick as it headed for the railroad crossing.
“It does make you think about paying attention here, and not racing trains,” Reed said.
The event was part of Norfolk Southern’s “Operation LifeSaver” program, which the railroad-shipping company holds across Tennessee to raise awareness about rail crossings – particularly in areas where drivers frequently appear to ignore warning devices about approaching trains and try to beat them.
Manning said Norfolk Southern had become concerned about several “near-misses” at the Hazelwood-Arkansas crossing in recent months, and decided to target the area for the “Operation LifeSaver” stop-and-talk.
The Hazelwood-Arkansas section is part of a Norfolk Southern line from Bristol to Knoxville. Manning said as many as eight trains use the line each day, carrying everything from food and lumber to metals and hazardous materials.
“We just felt it was time to just come out and reinforce the message that you’re really playing with danger by ignoring the fact that trains do travel here,” Manning said as fellow workers unfurled an “Operation LifeSaver” banner beside the tracks.
Among the tips cited in Operation LifeSaver’s campaign are:
• Slow down when you approach a railroad crossing.
• Look in both directions of the track before crossing it.
• Never shift gears when crossing a railroad track.
• If your vehicle stalls on a track, immediately get out of it – even if there’s no train approaching.
• Realize that if a locomotive engineer can see you on a track, it’s too late to stop in time to avoid hitting you. A freight train traveling 55 miles per hour – an average speed – needs a full mile to come to a complete stop.