(The following article by David Patch was posted on the Toledo Blade website on January 4.)
TOLEDO, Ohio — Every time Laura Gomoll crosses a railroad track, she is reminded of her stepson Jeremiah’s death four years ago. Over the next 10 years, the trains themselves will provide a further reminder – but one of a slightly more positive nature.
The Federal Railroad Administration yesterday published regulations requiring railroad locomotives and cars to have reflective striping that will make them more visible to motorists at railroad crossings.
Mrs. Gomoll of Lyons, Ohio, believes such striping would have saved Jeremiah Gomoll, 18, who was killed Dec. 22, 2000, when the car he was driving on a rural Fulton County Road near Pettisville slammed into a stopped Norfolk Southern freight train three cars from its end. An unidentified companion suffered minor injuries.
Mrs. Gomoll said at the time that while the freight car Jeremiah’s vehicle hit was light in color, it did not stand out on a moonless night until it was too late for Jeremiah to stop. She added that she has had numerous close calls with stopped trains on dark, rural roads.
“Good. Praise the Lord. Now at least people will be able to see [trains] at night,” she said yesterday upon learning that the rule was official. “The best thing would be to have flashing lights at all crossings, but it will be a long time before that happens. At least now [motorists] will have a warning.”
The crossing on Fulton County Road 18 has since been equipped with warning lights and gates as part of a state safety campaign on Ohio’s busiest railroad corridors. But many rural crossings on lesser-used tracks still have only warning signs.
According to the Federal Railroad Administration, nearly one quarter of all crossing crashes nationwide involve vehicles driving into the sides of trains.
Tracy Gomoll, Mrs. Gomoll’s husband and Jeremiah’s father, said the regulation is bittersweet for him because it is “too little, too late” for his family.
“But hopefully it will prevent some other family from going through it,” Mr. Gomoll said.
The regulation requires new railroad cars to be delivered with reflective markings on their sides and owners of existing cars to refit them with such markings. By May 31, 2007, 20 percent of the car fleet is to be so marked, and the required fleet percentage increases by 10 percent annually after that until 100 percent is reached by May 31, 2015.
Similar markings must be applied to locomotives over a five-year schedule.
The new rules are the result of federal studies ordered by Congress in 1994. A 1980s-era study by the Federal Railroad Administration found that reflective material on railcars would be effective at reducing crashes but that materials then available were not durable enough for long-term use. In the intervening two decades, reflective material better suited for the “harsh railroad environment” has been developed.
About 1.7 million freight cars are in use in North America, and as much as 10 percent of the railcar fleet has reflective markings, although many do not conform to the patterns specified in the new regulations. Mr. and Mrs. Gomoll said they’ve seen some of the recently built or repainted freight cars that have the parallel pattern of vertical yellow stripes that now becomes standard.
While seeing train cars like that will be a reminder of Jeremiah’s death, Mrs. Gomoll said, “Every time I go over a train track, it’s a reminder.”