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I had the link open for a while when I first looked at it, but after some time, it went away and said that I had to register in order to see it.  That is why I was not sure if it would hold up here.   <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p> The piece seems targeted to people who might end up on juries like the one in the Anoka crash.  The theme is that there are far more signal failure-to-activate incidents than are officially tallied.  I cannot pick out and verify the lies, but I have no doubt as to their existence.  But aside from lies, the article seems like it is advancing an agenda when it mentions that MOW equipment fails to activate crossing signals, but fails to mention that such equipment is supposed to yield to motor vehicles at grade crossings. <o:p></o:p> Also indicative of an ulterior motive is the fact that the article cites the total number of phone calls about crossing malfunctions, which includes false activation as well as failure to activate, while the actual problem that is the subject of the article is only related to a failure to activate.    <o:p></o:p> It mentions that many grade crossing signal failures are hard to confirm, leaving the impression that the only way to confirm them is to test the equipment after a crash, and discover that it fails again upon testing.  This reinforces the impression that signal failure-to-activate cases occur often, but are not confirmed or counted in many cases.   The NY Times says they found, within a 4-year period, 400 grade crossing crashes where the signals either did not activate or were alleged to have malfunctioned.  Yet the statistic is meaningless unless we are told how many of the 400 cases involved signals that did not activate, and how many involved signals that were alleged to have malfunctioned.  The truth might be that one case involved a signal that did not activate, and the other 399 cases involved signals that were alleged to have malfunctioned.  And all of the allegers may have lied for all we know.  And even with those loopholes in the evidence, the Times admits that they don’t know what role the alleged malfunctions played in the crashes, it any.  And finally, they do not tell us how many of the 45 deaths arising from this 4-year analysis were caused by signal failure-to-activate, yet that is the theme of the article.
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