(The following story by Karen Gleason appeared on the Del Rio News-Herald website on May 29.)
DEL RIO, Texas — Union Pacific Railroad officials recently asked the city council for help in dealing with what they termed a dangerous threat to thrill-seekers using a railroad bridge as a dive platform from which to jump into San Felipe Creek.
“Union Pacific wants to go on record as saying that this is a very, very dangerous situation,” Union Pacific’s B. Mack Pusley told the city council during its May 13 meeting.
Pusley and Union Pacific Railroad Senior Special Agent Richard A. Krueger asked for the city’s help in demolishing a rock dam that has been built in the creek under the railroad bridge.
Pusley told the council that the water in San Felipe Creek under the railroad bridge is only about a foot or two deep, but persons – presumably the same persons jumping from the bridge – have engineered and constructed a rock dam under the bridge.
Pusley said the dam makes the water deeper and encourages more youngsters to jump into the creek from the railroad bridge.
Pusley told the council he has asked the city to remove the handmade dam in the past, “but they just build it back within a week.”
In late July 2005, a Del Rio teenager on the railroad bridge was struck by a train. The young man survived the collision and the subsequent fall from the bridge, but suffered several fractures and a severe head wound.
Pusley and Krueger told the council that is exactly the kind of accident they wish to avoid.
Pusley and Krueger said the no trespassing signs and signs warning of the danger of jumping from the railroad bridge are ignored.
Pusley also told the council that anyone using the railroad bridge as a diving platform is trespassing on railroad property.
Pusley said railroad personnel have “several times” removed a makeshift ladder divers use to get onto the railroad bridge, “but we don’t have the personnel to monitor this.”
“We’re worried that there will be a serious injury or a fatality. And to see a human being on the tracks, that’s a very emotional thing for our personnel,” Pusley told the council.
He told city council members that it takes about a mile for a train traveling 55 miles per hour to stop.
“We’re just here to go on the record as asking for some help and to tell you that there’s a real potential problem here,” Pusley told the council.
After the railroad officials’ presentation, Councilman Claudio Sotelo made a motion, seconded by Councilwoman Pat Cole, to direct city staff to “clean up” the area of the creek and to provide more police patrols in the area.
“This situation has been going on for some time, but it is a very dangerous situation, and we need to take some kind of action,” said Councilwoman Tina Martinez.
The council voted unanimously to approve Sotelo’s motion.