(The following article by Lois Caliri was posted on the Roanoke Times website on June 23.)
ROANOKE, Va. — The train horns – sentimental to some, bothersome to others – are back.
Rail engineers are now required to blow the locomotive horns, or whistles, when they approach public grade crossings, a publicly owned roadway.
Starting Friday, Norfolk Southern engineers will sound the horn at crossings in Salem, Vinton, Rocky Mount, Buchanan, Pulaski and Abingdon.
Local officials, however, can silence the horns. If they already have “quiet zones” and want to keep them, they must file a notice with the Federal Railroad Administration.
NS said Wednesday that it had not received any requests from the above-mentioned localities.
But at least one is on the way.
Salem officials do not want any horns blowing. The city’s public crossings have lights and long gates – safety precautions and clear indications that a train is coming, said Melinda Payne, spokeswoman for the city.
“If someone is going to run the gates or the lights, I don’t think horn blowing will stop them,” she said.
Two women died in a crossing accident in 2003, and another woman was injured at another crossing that year in Salem. In January, an NS freight train struck a minivan and killed a mother and her adult daughter after the driver drove past flashing lights and around a warning gate. The train hit the van as it crossed the tracks at Union Street, just south of Fourth Street.
There have been at least three train-vehicle collisions at the Union Street crossing in the past two decades. In 1997, a car was destroyed but no one was killed. A woman who drove through the gates was killed there in 1991. In 1983, another woman was killed there.
In 94 percent of the grade crossing collisions, the behavior of the motorist was involved, said FRA spokesman Steve Kulm.
In Rocky Mount, a train-car collision occurred in 1992. “Fortunately, the gentleman wasn’t seriously hurt,” Police Chief R.B. Jenkins said.
“If horn blowing prevents one fatality or even one injury, then the effort is worth it.” Blowing the horn or whistle is safer for motorists and pedestrians, he said.
Some residents who live near the public crossings may be stressed in the morning when the engineers blow the whistles, “but I would be remiss in my duties if I wasn’t for it,” Jenkins said.
The two public crossings in Rocky Mount are on Diamond Avenue and the other is adjacent to Franklin Street and MW Manufacturing.
Between 1992 and 1996, there were 793 collisions resulting in 97 deaths and 275 injuries nationwide. These wrecks occurred at crossings where whistles could not be sounded, according to the FRA.
FRA officials heard from nearly 5,000 residents and local officials who had something to say about the horn rule when it was proposed. Many communities welcomed the rule because it gave them the option to silence the horn, Kulm said.
Communities that have whistle bans questioned the costs involved to maintain the silence.
Here’s why.
Once a whistle-banning community files a notice to keep its ban, it has to perform a risk analysis. That involves highway traffic volume, train traffic volume and accident history. Communities may have to foot the bill to add safety features that address the risk of not blowing the horn.
One caveat, though.
If the ban was in existence prior to October 1996 and officials file a notice, the horns can remain silent for five to eight years while the community plans for additional safety features.
Kulm said a huge increase of accidents in a quiet zone along Florida’s east coast drove Congress to require the FRA to develop a new horn rule.
A new quiet zone requires, at minimum, gates and flashing lights at each grade crossing. Additional safety measures may be required to compensate for the absence of the horn.
There will be instances where gates and flashing lights may be sufficient, Kulm said. “But we feel, probably, in more cases than not, some additional features will be needed.” For example, a concrete or some other type of barrier would be needed to prevent a driver from going around a lowered gate.
New quiet zones can be in effect 24 hours a day or just during the overnight period between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m.
The new rule also sets the first maximum train horn volume and reduces the amount of time the horn is sounded, which will help communities that do not pursue the quiet zones, Kulm said.
Two to three locomotives will be tested monthly in Roanoke. As part of the test, each of the two horns on a locomotive must be sounded at least six times for 10 seconds. Tests will be conducted during daylight hours. Railroads must test the decibel levels to ensure they meet minimum – 96 decibel – and maximum – 110 decibel – levels.
Grade crossing safety is the responsibility of the FRA, the railroads, the communities providing money to make improvements, and motorists, Kulm said.
“We’re trying to balance quality-of-life issues with safety of the crossing for motorists,” Kulm said. “It’s not just about silencing the horns so people can sleep at night.”