(The following column by Tom Jackson appeared on the Tampa Tribune website on March 4, 2009.)
TAMPA, Fla. — About freight train traffic through Pasco County’s largely rural eastern flank, two rules always apply.
Rule No. 1: Trains that have achieved cruising velocity take … just … a … bout … for … evvvvvvver … to … stop. If Tribune reports over the years are any indication, a half mile is pretty much the low end of your standard freight train’s braking distance.
Rule No. 2: Drivers gauging whether they have time to reach the other side of a train crossing tend to underestimate, and cannot change, the serious consequences of Rule No. 1.
Both rules are worth re-pondering today, in the aftermath of the latest smash-up involving a freight train from the CSX line (more about which in a moment) and a motorist who, apparently, will survive to reveal his side of the mishap.
Tuesday’s collision is at least the eighth matching trains and motorists in east Pasco since 1992 (when Tribune archives went electronic), with the results being written in shattered bodies, staggering medical costs, grieving families, motor vehicles unrecognizable as anything but junk and freight cars making jagged accordion pleats, or lying at rancorous angles in high grass.
And that’s not even counting the catastrophic head-on collision between trains near Richland on the Monday after Thanksgiving in 2004, although the scene bore all the familiar nightmarish trademarks.
Shifting Price Of Safety
Typically, lay opinion in the aftermath of these episodes leans toward blaming the authorities (possibly on the theory that, when their time comes to misjudge the speed of an approaching train, other bystanders will absolve them by also blaming the authorities). To wit: suspect crossings lacked proper, or sufficient, warning signals.
Listen, if it were up to me, no intersection of train tracks and roadway in the country – up to and including tracks that cross private roads, as was the case Tuesday – would be without flashing lights, bells and gate arms. Safety is as safety does. Besides, the armed flashing signal was always my favorite electric train accessory.
But my preference is economically indefensible. A pair of full-blown, lights-strobing, bell-gonging, gate-dropping signals can top $250,000, according to published reports. In the absence of state Department of Transportation guidelines compelling them to do so, few small businesses are going to pop for that expense.
Moreover, without such an instruction from Tallahassee to lean on, a plaintiff’s lawyer would have trouble mounting a plausible case for negligence.
Responsibility Meets Hard Steel
In short, folks, surviving a railroad crossing is generally up to us. Not that there’s very much wrong with that. It is, after all, the age of personal responsibility, famously established in President Obama’s inauguration speech.
Moreover, it’s a condition with which it seems we will have to become ever more mindful. Once the state’s deal to bring commuter rail to central Florida closes, CSX will almost certainly route dozens more trains through east Pasco, to and from the new rail yard in Winter Haven.
More train traffic will increase both the opportunity and the rationale for tempting fate. When those moments occur, motorists would be exceptionally wise to be ever mindful of train crossing rules Nos. 1 and 2.