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[quote]QUOTE: Originally posted by oltmannd Reflectorizing cars is not as simple as is sounds. First, the tape has to be applied before the car is painted so that it will be edge-sealed. Otherwise, it will delaminate and fall off within a year's time. Second, it would have to be cleaned to remove the accumulated road dirt. Unlike locos, cars are never washed and pressure washing risks water contimination of bearings. Washing also requires proper treatment of waste water and RRs do not have facilities to wash equipment other than loco shops. Third, cars may not get painted for 20 or 30 years (just look at all those incentive perdiem box cars wandering around in their original paint from the 70s) whereas locomotives get painted at least every 10 years. If you put reflector tape on and then fail to maintain and clean it, then you are opening yourself up to lawsuits when somebody drives into the side of that car. The REAL solution to crossing safety would be to use gas tax money for overpasses, but that is not a practical or political priority. Other safety projects are more worthy. Also, crossing safety should truly belong to the highway dept. It was foisted off on the RRs back in the good old days when they were flush with money and the target of anti-trust. Now the RRs dpn't make enough money to maintain the status-quo, much less do more. If crossing safety is a national or local priority, then let the gov't at any level belly up to the bar. But if you want to know what I REALLY think..... [/quote] I look at it as the railroads either do it or go to jail for negligient homicide like any other business owner. It's their trains. Like these politicans who didn't do their jobs to start with standing around getting medals for getting the kids killed to start with. Then the low life railroads comeing in and chargeing 1/4 a million when the gates can be bought for 40K all day long. On Sept. 11, 1999, 16-year-old Megan Hicks lost her life when the pickup truck she was riding in hit a stopped train at the County Road 1300 North railroad crossing near Alexandria. Almost four years later, friends and family have reached their goal to help prevent this from happening to others. Megan's loved ones worked together for three years to make the dangerous crossing safer for drivers by getting the Indiana Department of Transportation to install dusk-till-dawn street lights as well as railroad cross bars, guards and lights. They named their project Megan's Light and dedicated it to Megan's memory Thursday evening. "We needed to turn our anger into constructive energy," said Brenda Jackson, the mother of one of Megan's friends. "We wanted to prevent an accident from happening again." Jackson explained that many rural crossings are unlighted and unmarked because of the low flow of traffic in the areas. If a train is crossing, or is stopped on the tracks there is nothing around to inform drivers of the upcoming obstacle. "The combination of dark tracks and stopped trains is like an illusion," she said. "That's why they hit the train." After Megan's death, a group of 12 family members and high school friends decided to do something about the dangerous crossing. "All these young kids stayed with me and worked on this for two years ... out of their love to Megan," said Jackson. "They wanted to make a difference." To accompli***his feat they joined forces with U.S. Sen. Richard Lugar, former U.S. Rep. David McIntosh, state Rep. Eric Turner and state Sen. David Ford, as well as with county and state officials and the community of Alexandria. McIntosh, who spoke at the dedication, said he worked with Congress to help increase the safety at this railroad crossing and others. "I thought, here's a group that's honoring a loved one they lost," he said. "If I could help, I wanted to do it." Turner also spoke at the dedication and said that he first got involved with the project when he attended a public meeting. There were several hundred people and what struck him was that they were mostly students. "They had many ideas of what could be done to put up the gates. The students said they would raise the money, so I said I would help them," Turner said, explaining that they raised $5,000. "I saw the wisdom in it. I think it is a terrific indicator of how the government can work for the community." At the dedication, community members gathered to pray and honor Megan and her lights. "Our vision is to never let her lights go out, that they will always be burning to save lives at railroad crossings," said Jackson. "We hope that other counties will consider lighting dusk-till-dawn lights too." Jackson explained that it would be more convenient to put up these street lights because they are less expensive than cross-arms and guides; therefore, the money could be spread to more crossings. Dusk-till-dawn lights cost $3,000, while cross-arms and guards cost $250,000, she said. The group will be moving Megan's Light to the County Road 900 North railroad crossing as well, another darkened area, and hopes to go on from there. They have also placed 27 stop signs at rural crossings in Madison County. "It's great to see everyone still supporting Megan's Light," said Tiffany Pierce, 20, one of Megan's sisters. "It is a very dangerous crossing. There have been many close calls." Michelle Hicks, 28, another of Megan's sisters, believes that the time they put into their project was worthwhile. "We pushed for so long. It is something good that came out of something negative," she said. "Hopefully sometime we'll get to (Washington) D.C. It's our goal to do something federally to make everyone aware of these crossings."
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