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There is no requirement to provide a driver's license to a police officer or a sheriff's deputy if you aren't operating a motor vehicle at the time you are questioned. I don't know what information rail road company ID's provide, but I assume they have the basics- name, and date of birth. That's enough to verify identity. It's also enough, most of the time, to insure there are no warrants outstanding against the individual questioned. (Locomotive engineers are not any different from other human beings... sometimes even they have something to hide.) In the accident investigations I have participated in, I have seen people provide false identitites- usually because they are hiding something, like a suspended license or an outstanding warrant. Criminals do this on a routine basis. Frankly, in train vs. automobile accidents, I know enough to draw much the same conclusion this Sheriff did. Yet, to protect everyone in this case, it's important to have full and complete information on all participants. I would not be surprised if the engineer was not requested to take a Drager breathalyser test to determine if he was under the influence of alcohol at the time of the accident. (It's standard procedure.) He could refuse to take the test, of course; but his driving priveleges (as in automobile driving) would be suspended in this state (Alabama). I empathize with locomotive engineers in most cases. I also empathize with truck drivers involved in fatalities where the fault is clearly the other participant in the accident. As a cop, it's not going to stop me from asking questions about causes of the accident. It's not going to stop me from attempting to rule out all contributory factors to an accident. One of those contributory factors would be the state of mind (impaired or not?) of the participants. Investigators ask insensitive questions. Cops act insensitively at times. The reason is usually because the quicker information is obtained, the faster a case can be cleared. I believe the engineer had nothing to hide in this case. As Ed said, we weren't there. It IS unusual behavior to refuse to even give your name to a police officer when you have been in an accident. Erik
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