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Wow! As I read the postings to this issue, I am reminded of a JFK saying, "They enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought". There sure are a lot of opinions here, but very little logic and facts. There seems to be a little paranoia as well. My thoughts: It's not about who's at fault. I can't recall reading of a single grade crossing accident that was the fault of the train crew. However, most of the victims aren't crazy drivers who tried to cut under the gates. Many are inexperienced drivers who panicked. Many had their stereos cranked up and didn't hear the train. Some were stuck on the tracks due to traffic or mechanical problems. Many were simply passengers and had no control over their fate. Most fatalities happen at unguarded crossings. The fact is that many crossings are inherently dangerous, at least 100's perhaps 1000's. If an intersection of two roads is inherently dangerous wouldn't we expect an improvement? What make grade crossings different? I lived in Memphis for 10 years where one of the major east/west roads parallels Norfolk and Southern tracks for nearly 25 miles. In that time more that 10 people were killed at grade crossings within 5 miles of my house. Norfolk and Southern never spent a dime to alter any one of those crossings. I often wondered what NS did to deserve a ransom of one life per year from the community. Perhaps we should just explain to their parents/spouses/children just how stupid they were to get hit by a train. Class 1 railroads kill approximately 1000 people a year, about 1/2 of that at grade crossings. Check out the statistics at the Bureau of Transportation Statistics website. Railroad crews and passengers account for only about 1-2% of these fatalities. Perhaps that accounts for the lack of compassion from this group of posters. Most of the other fatalities were "trespassers" which is what the railroads call people who crossed their tracks without a car. Ever cross a railroad track on foot? - you were a trespasser. A train traveling one mile is many times more likely to produce a fatality than a truck traveling one mile. But truckers have to face many more intersections, competing traffic, stops and starts and many more crazy drivers. Trains are inherently dangerous. Could they be made safer? Bottom line - Society has a responsibility to prevent needless deaths. Don't the railroads share in this responsibility? Doesn't matter who came first (although it is a good bet that the first RR crossed a road, rather than vice-versa), people have to cross the tracks to live and work. Railroads wouldn't exist today if it wasn't for the intervention of government to create the initial right of way. In many cases, they were just given the ROR. Surely there is some "public trust" issue here. I'm sure that's all this initial post was about.
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