(The following story by Glen Creno and Matt Dempsey appeared on The Arizona Republic website on August 8.)
PHOENIX, Ariz. — Arizona has some of the most-dangerous freight-train crossings in the nation, with a west Phoenix intersection topping the list of accidents at crossings nationwide.
Two other crossings in metropolitan Phoenix ranked in the top five, according to a report released Tuesday by the University of Louisville and Citizens for Rail Safety. Some of the accidents involved injuries; none was fatal.
The intersection of the Burlington Northern Santa Fe tracks at 35th Avenue near Grand Avenue logged 20 crashes between cars and trains in the five-year study period starting in 2001. The crashes caused damage from the hundreds to thousands of dollars and involved vehicles that were moving or nearly stopped.
The other two locations tied for fifth place nationally with 12 accidents each, including crossings at Thomas Road and 27th Avenue and another just to the east of 27th Avenue, south of Jackson Street.
Four other intersections in the Valley had six or more accidents at rail crossings for a total of 73 accidents in the study period. Most of the accidents happened along a stretch of tracks that run near Grand Avenue in the West Valley from Bethany Home to Thomas roads.
“The Phoenix area is the area in the country where most of the accidents are happening,” said Patricia Abbate, executive director for the rail-safety group.
The group compiles the data but doesn’t interpret it. The Arizona Corporation Commission, which investigates rail-crossing crashes for the Federal Railroad Administration, said there are a couple of reasons the number of accidents are highest in Phoenix.
The intersections near Grand Avenue have a high volume of traffic because of the way the streets are laid out and the number of industrial plants in the area, said Heather Murphy, spokeswoman for the commission.
All of that can make a driver confused or impatient, she said.
“Unfortunately, almost always it’s driver behavior or some facet of traffic that causes the accidents,” she said. “People are edging forward, winding up on the tracks and panicking. People are trying to race the gates. . . . A train hitting a car is like a Cadillac hitting a soda can. I think drivers don’t understand that a train can’t stop quickly.”
It’s unclear whether the crossings or roads played a role. Phoenix designs the streets leading to the crossings. The city could not comment on the study, saying it wasn’t able to do a comparison of its data and the study’s data quickly enough. Railroad officials didn’t return calls.
At the most-dangerous crossing, at 35th Avenue, warning lights were illuminated in 18 of the 20 crashes, according to the accident reports.
The warning light was off in one of the crashes. Investigators couldn’t determine whether they were on in the other accident.
The report analyzed accident data filed with the Federal Railroad Administration. Accidents were at road-level crossings and included trains running on private freight lines. Most of the accidents were clustered in the South and the Southwest.
In addition to accidents, the study compiled a separate top 10 list for the number of fatalities in rail-crossing crashes. Crossings in California and Colorado ranked highest.
Although no Arizona city was on that list, an intersection in Valentine near Kingman had four fatalities, placing it in the top 20 nationally for most fatal incidents at a rail crossing for the five-year period.
Study organizers hope planners, railroads and rank-and-file drivers use the data to reduce deaths, injuries and property damage.
“We know there’s a problem,” Abbate said. “(We) wanted to build awareness on this issue.”