Grade crossings – calls for more laws and more technology may not cut it

Early March saw a fatal grade crossing accident in Biloxi, Mississippi, involving a casino tour bus and a CSX freight train. News of this unfortunate crash, where the bus appears to have become hung up on the high spot where the tracks cross the roadway, reached me just about when I was reading an opinion piece by Brian Solomon in the April issue of Trains.

What I gleaned from the piece is that Mr. Solomon believes more can still be done to protect unwary citizens at grade crossings, or what is called level crossings in Europe. I mention Europe, because Mr. Solomon calls this an American grade-crossing problem. In the piece, he offers several suggestions as to what “more to be done” should be.

Before I get into my opinion—you know I’d have one—let me express my condolences to the unfortunate victims of the Biloxi accident.

Yes, Virginia, it was an accident. I’m sure that the driver of the bus did not intend to get his bus stuck, just as the train’s crew did not intend to hit something at a crossing. I’m equally sure that neither the bus company nor the railroad wanted it to happen. Many factors contribute to such an accident, and some are beyond our control, in fact beyond the control of Mr. Solomon, as well. Not the smallest of these factors is our tendency to negligently disregard anyone but ourselves.

Mr. Solomon accurately points out that drivers are often impatient and ignorant. They can be confused, as well, by the plethora of things going on around them, the arrangement of signs and warnings, and, not least, the bells and whistles present within the confines of a modern passenger automobile. He suggests that education has gone as far as it can go toward prevention, and suggests that railroads and communities could get together (with tons of money) and eliminate grade crossings altogether.

Also among his proposals are the installation of absolute protection in the form of drop gates timed far in advance of the approach of a train, positive warning of vehicles stuck on tracks, and the conversion of the standard American cross buck and flashing red with bell or electronic tone to a traffic signal-like arrangement that would provide a yellow warning in advance of a red--effectively the European model. Why Mr. Solomon thinks that American drivers will suddenly begin obeying traffic signals is beyond me.

I liken the intractable part of the grade crossing problem to the intractable DWI problem in some states. At some point, we’ve reached a level below which no amount of additional education is going to dissuade the self-centered, sick, psychotically stupid or suicidal people from doing whatever the heck they want to do. More laws won’t help, and throwing more money at the problem just punishes those who actually are careful and who actually do obey the laws.

So what’s the answer?

Tempting though it may be, I hesitate to propose a “let the herd thin itself” philosophy, because that puts innocent lives in danger. Besides, rabbits have nothing on the terminally stupid when it comes to reproduction.

But wait! If technology doesn’t work and laws don’t work, maybe there’s something else we can buy with taxpayer dollars that will work.

How about employing three shifts of capable, deputized, radio-equipped crossing guards for each remaining grade crossing in America. This would provide full time employment for approximately 350,000 people if Mr. Solomon’s figures for remaining public crossings are accurate. The cost: A mere $17.5 billion rounded off. If this is shared half-public-half-railroad, it’s certainly doable and less than the cost of adding a digital grade crossing feature to Positive Train Control that would come anywhere close . And private crossings could be made the financial responsibility of the property owner.

I’d like to hear a better idea.

©2017 – C. A. Turek – mistertrains@gmail.com

(Charles A. Turek is a writer and novelist based in Albuquerque, NM. After four decades working in areas of the insurance industry related to transportation, he now writes on all aspects of American railroading. Charles is a political conservative but believes in public funding of passenger rail as a part of the federal government’s constitutionally conservative obligation to provide for defense and public infrastructure so that private enterprise may flourish.)