(The Muncie Times published the following story by Joyce Russell on its website on August 6.)
PORTAGE, Ind. — The number of vehicle/train crashes in Indiana last year was down from the previous year. But for Tammy Wagner, the decrease isn’t enough.
In 2002, 174 crashes were reported. Seventeen people died in those accidents, and another 44 were seriously injured.
“We’d like to see a significant change, which is why we are out here,” said Wagner, regional crossing and trespasser manager for the Federal Railroad Administration.
She and nine others from the administration, Porter County Sheriff’s Department, Portage Police Department and Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District, as well as Indiana Harbor Belt, CSX and Norfolk Southern railroad police departments spent six hours at U.S. Steel’s Midwest plant Tuesday talking train safety to truckers.
The plant’s entrance was the site of a fatal accident in June 1998 when a South Shore passenger train struck a tractor-trailer carrying steel coils. Three train passengers were killed.
The five two-person teams stopped truckers at the plant, passed out safety information and copies of laws regarding railroad safety and reminded them they could lose their commercial drivers license for 60 days if they disregard a crossing signal. They also quizzed the drivers about the lengths of their rigs and asked them if their semitrailers would fit between the tracks at the plant’s entrance.
“I didn’t know how long the truck and trailer were together,” admitted driver Travis Lawrence of Taylorville, Ill. “I know there’s 55 feet (of clearance) here and I know I couldn’t fit in there.”
A truck driver for six years, this was the first time Lawrence had been stopped in a safety blitz.
“I always pay attention to crossings. Our shop is right by a set of tracks,” he said, adding that he thought the informational campaign was a good thing to remind truckers of the dangers.
This is the second year for the campaign, said Pat Graham, the administration’s chief inspector. Last year, they made contact with 282 truckers. Drivers and their companies have been receptive to the safety efforts, which Graham said wouldn’t be possible without the partnership between his agency and local law enforcement.
The administration also was involved with a safety blitz in Portage earlier this summer, with Portage police warning regular drivers about the dangers of going around gates and ignoring signals, Graham said. This year alone, four people have been killed in Portage — two teens in January on Hamstrom Road and a mother and daughter earlier this summer on County Line Road.
“One of the things people don’t understand is the impact they (fatal accidents) have on the community much less the crew on that train,” Graham said. Education and enforcement are the two keys to increasing crossing safety, he added.
“People have to understand they can’t win. You don’t walk away from them,” Graham said.
“I’m amazed at the number of near hits. Many times people become complacent. A lot of people don’t realize the speed at which the trains travel. At 55 mph, it takes a mile or more for a train to stop,” Wagner said.