(The following story by Richard Walker appeared on the Times and Democrat website on April 11.)
ORANGEBURG, S.C. — A compact car, a silver one, speeds across the train track beside Magnolia Street. A white one does the same. In the background, a 100-car train is bearing down on the crossings.
The rail crossings these cars passed over were less than 250 yards from a training class aimed teaching police about such carelessness.
“We’re going to start doing some serious enforcement on this,” said Orangeburg Department of Public Safety Sgt. Jeff Mitchum. “If you drive around the barriers, you’re going to get a ticket. If you’re walking on the railroad, you’re going to get a ticket.”
It’s called Operation Lifesaver, a two-day course that ended Wednesday and was sponsored by Norfolk Southern.
“We’re training police officers to better be able to handle a collision, should they encounter one,” said Stan Silver, Special Agent law enforcement officer with Norfolk Southern Railroad. “Who they should talk to, what information they should get.”
Silver said the Charleston division of the railroad sponsors two classes a year, one in the Midlands and another in the Upstate.
Nine ODPS officers attended training this week, along with law enforcement personnel from North Charleston and Santee.
On Wednesday, the officers and railroad personnel training moved out of the classroom and onto the tracks. Officers rode inside an engine on a four-mile round trip through the city.
“We saw a number of violations,” Mitchum said. “One fellow ran across the tracks. Another, in a vehicle, stopped in Magnolia Street waiting to get across.”
The penalty for disregarding a railroad barrier is four points and $128. If you’re lucky.
“When you’re dealing with a 4,000-to-one weight ratio, you’re going to lose that one,” Mitchum said. “If you took a Coke can and put it under your tire, that is the same thing.”
The silver car that darted across the railroad around 12:10 p.m. Wednesday made it. The white one did too.
But in December, a pedestrian attempted to beat the train after a sprint from the Taco Bell parking lot. He wasn’t so lucky, getting knocked into a nearby ditch.
A month earlier, a pair of Darlington women experienced a near-miss when their car was spun around.
Those individuals lived. But in July 2007, an 89-year-old man became trapped between the two cross arms at the Peasley Street crossing. His car was tossed across the four lanes of Magnolia.
Nationwide, South Carolina ranked 18th in train-related collisions last year with 66, according to the Operation Lifesaver Web site.