(By Ruth Liao of Statesman Journal on June 26, 2008)
SALEM, OR – As the Union Pacific train approached the Salem Amtrak station Wednesday afternoon, 3-year-old Makena Big John-Miller let out a cheer.
“A train! It’s a train! It’s a train!” Makena said.
It wasn’t any ordinary train — Makena and her father, Scott Miller of Canby, were waiting to board a special caboose.
The event was part of a railroad safety campaign known as Operation Cross Accident Reduction Enforcement, or CARE. Union Pacific and the rail safety nonprofit Operation Lifesaver organized the event.
In addition, extra Union Pacific Railroad enforcement patrols were stationed at various railroad crossings in Salem, said Senior Special Agent Vince Hoffarth.
On May 16, a 13-year-old Jefferson boy was seriously injured after a group of children was near the tracks and the boy was struck by a mile-long Union Pacific freight train, Marion County Sheriff’s Cmdr. Jason Myers said.
The boy was thrown about 30 feet off the tracks and was taken to Oregon Health & Science University hospital in Portland. A fund later was established to help with the family’s medical costs.
Hoffarth said in Salem, an 8-foot high grated fence built parallel to 14th Street SE just south of the Amtrak station in early 2007 has helped reduce foot traffic across the tracks and potential trespassers.
Operation Lifesaver coordinator Dean Dahlin has worked as an engineer for 39 years with Union Pacific. Throughout his career, nine people have been hit when he was in the locomotive.
“They’re all bad, but the worst one was 20 years ago, when two high school girls were walking down the tracks,” Dahlin said.
It happened in Rochester, Wash., and one of the girls was killed, Dahlin said.
After that incident, Dahlin began his rail safety outreach education — he visits schools, civic organizations and talks with children and pedestrians at rail crossings.
Dahlin said he has noticed that drivers and pedestrians seem more impatient and pay attention less to safety signals. Some are talking on their cell phones or listening to music through ear buds.
The biggest danger of a train is misjudging its speed, Dahlin said.
An average train weighing about 6,000 tons and traveling at 30 mph needs about half a mile to stop, Dahlin said.
Dahlin said stopping the train during an emergency as an engineer is akin to a driver sliding on ice. Dahlin said he remembers all of the incidents in which someone was hit by a train.
“It never totally goes away,” Dahlin said. “You live with it for the rest of your life.”