(The following story by Mark Schlachtenhaufen appeared on The Edmond Sun website on August 26.)
EDMOND, Okla. — Unruly motorists have damaged 40 railroad crossing gates in Edmond since January and have been ignoring traffic laws, prompting a safety awareness campaign by police and railroad officials.
From about 8 a.m. until noon Monday, eight Edmond Police officers riding in Burlington Northern Santa Fe engines monitored motorists at the railroad crossings along the track from Danforth to 33rd Street.
When the officers riding in the train spotted violations, they radioed officers assigned to each crossing. Motorists were pulled over and issued a warning or a citation.
During the morning, Edmond Police Department spokeswoman Glynda Chu said the officers made 63 stops, issued 35 warnings and wrote 28 citations, which each carried a $244 fine.
“I thought it went very well,” Chu said of the campaign. “It raises awareness. It’s for the public’s safety.”
Edmond Sgt. Bob Pratt said BNSF railway police have received numerous complaints from locomotive engineers about motorists disregarding railroad signals by driving around closed gates, disregarding flashing light and stopping upon tracks in front of moving trains.
Pratt said the goal of the effort is to focus the public’s attention on the importance of stopping at railroad crossings and to emphasize the potentially dire consequences of a car-train collision.
“Car versus train is like someone stepping on an empty pop can,” Pratt said. “There’s no contest between a moving train and a car.”
Kirby Carson, BNSF division train master, said public safety is the No. 1 reason for the campaign. Carson said it takes a train more than a mile to stop from its average speed of 45 mph, the limit for city travel.
Carson said replacing the gates is a cost burden for BNSF, but it’s all relative.
“Obviously we don’t like it, but it’s pretty minimal, though, in comparison to the cost of somebody’s life or creating a derailment,” Carson said.
When a train is forced to make an emergency stop railroad companies are federally obligated to inspect them before they can move on, Carson said. Furthermore, crossings in town are blocked during these hour-plus inspections, he said.
“If you see the lights flashing you have to stop,” Carson said. “Nothing is that important that’s worth running the crossing gates.”
Pratt said the last car-train fatality accident in Edmond occurred several years ago on 33rd Street. The driver jumped out just before the train hit. He was stopped on the tracks because the traffic was backed up at 33rd Street and Broadway.
Pratt said most often motorists violate railroad crossing laws because they are in a hurry. Close to the crossings, traffic can get congested.
“For one reason or another folks feel as though they don’t want to sit for a long, moving train and they’ll take the chance; it’s just not worth it,” Pratt said.
One thing motorists fail to consider is what an engineer is able to do, Pratt said. The tracks are fixed so all the engineer can do to avoid a car on the tracks is go into an emergency stop. Due to lingering psychological issues, many engineers involved in fatal accidents retire, Pratt said.
There’s also the potential for a derailment, which could be disastrous in the downtown area, a scenario dramatized last week near Luther, Pratt said.
The eight Edmond officers involved in the public awareness campaign were working in an overtime capacity, funded through a grant from the Oklahoma Highway Safety Office.