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NY Times investigates RR accidents in expose

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I'm a cop in rural Alabama near a fairly busy NS line. In the past year I've watched a friend's daughter go to the hospital for racing a train across a crossing. (She's now capable of sitting up and eating lunch on her own.) Near my church, a 17 year old tried to beat a train across an ungated (but marked) crossing... and lost. Fatally. That's one near miss and a fatality in a fairly small area of Alabama. The Alabama State Troopers do the investigations on all fatalities, and they are the ones who collect the evidence. They are the ones who have the special training to investigate traffic accidents. Most folks don't realize that cops are the ones who are responsible for collecting, storing, and preserving evidence. So, I have to wonder why people blame railroads for "destroying evidence?" Especially when railroads, like people, have a constitutional right not to incriminate themselves. As far as bad reputations go, railroads have had bad reps for over a century. I don't think a spin doctor could do much with Cornelius Vanderbilt saying "The public be damned." (The quote, like much else that occurs in the media, was taken out of context. He was talking about passenger service and the more profitable side of the business, running freight. We are repeating history....) The fact of the matter is that railroads and streets don't go well together. You will have fatalities occur at any crossing, because the vast majority of drivers all over the world are lethal weapons behind the wheel of a car. If nothing else, the article pointed out that railroads and street crossings are dangerous places to be. Considering the NY Times reading audience is primarily aimed at folks who live comfortably along the NEC (which probably doesn't have grade crossings where the ACELA runs...) it is at least a cautionary reminder. Maybe, just maybe, it will wake up local legislators who have been sitting on their butts and don't see bridging or tunneling grade crossings as sufficiently sexy. Cynic that I am, I kinda doubt it. It's easier to believe that UP, CSX, BNSF, and NS are evil, money grubbing, deep pocketed American corporations a la Enron. Erik
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