(The following article by Nelsy Rodriguez was posted on the Desert Sun website on June 29.)
COACHELLA VALLEY, Calif. — A train that destroyed an abandoned vehicle on Sunday didn’t cause any injuries, but it did offer a jolting reminder of an increasing number of train-related accidents on California railways.
The collision happened about 9:30 p.m. when a Union Pacific freight train hit the truck at the busy Airport and Grapefruit boulevards crossing near Coachella.
It was one of four incidents at that crossing since 1976 and among at least 15 in the east valley during that span.
The Los Angeles Times reported earlier this month that, unlike the rest of the nation, train-related injuries and deaths in California have gone up 15 percent in the last three years.
The Times reported 85 deaths and 50 injuries statewide last year.
Nationally, the Federal Railroad Administration reported 324 people died in crashes at crossings and more than 500 died after being hit by trains last year.
The Federal Railroad Administration also estimated that a person is hit by a train every three hours on one of the nation’s 252,000 highway-rail crossings.
Sunday’s collision near Coachella came less than two weeks after the Federal Railroad Administration released a plan aimed at preventing collisions with trains.
“Bottom line is it’s not good,” said Gene Hinkle, spokesman for Union Pacific, of the results of most such accidents.
Although trains are massive and highly visible, people still take chances at the tracks.
But Hinkle warned a freight train traveling 60 mph can take as long as a mile and a half to stop.
Tami Low, public information officer with the California Highway Patrol, said she can’t believe the risks she’s seen drivers in the valley take at a crossing at Avenue 60.
In one incident, Low remembered a man grew impatient as other cars passed him over the tracks. Frustrated, he tried to cross the tracks like the others but was hit by a train and died, Low said.
“The chances that people are taking with their lives and their family’s lives (are) just incredible,” Low said. “Not only at railroads but everywhere, to the point where you believe that traffic is just out of control.”
Elaine Geraty of North Shore said the rumbling sounds of trains speeding past her Salton Sea-area community are a a constant reminder to her to be careful around the tracks.
But she worries others in her growing community, where an Amtrak train carrying 250 people derailed after hitting an abandoned truck in 2002, aren’t as careful.
She said loud music in cars, rushed drivers and other distractions can mask the danger of oncoming trains.
“I think the main reason for the vehicle-train collisions is carelessness on the driver,” Geraty said. “The more people we get out here I think it’s going to happen more and more.”