How to get the message across - trains can't stop

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Davis Enterprise - northern California / March 2, 2007

Deaths highlight the need for caution

Flowers, a candle and a pair of hockey sticks mark the spot where Davis resident Barry Landy was struck by a train last week while crossing the railroad tracks at Arboretum Terrace Drive.

It was an area that the 41-year-old Landy reportedly knew well, with his business, RBL Construction, being nearby. Still, the eastbound Amtrak passenger train apparently caught Landy by surprise, striking his Ford Expedition before he could clear the intersection.

“You were always kind and sweet to people,” says a child’s note, affixed to a post with a stop sign and railroad crossing warning on the northwest side of the tracks. “You were our best friend. Rest in peace.”

Drawn on the note was a picture of an inline hockey player — a tribute to Landy’s passion for coaching and playing the sport.

Just four days after Landy’s death, another man was killed by a train in Suisun City, where witnesses said 82-year-old Van Smith drove through a lowered railroad-crossing gate and became stuck on the tracks as the westbound Coast Starlight passenger train approached.

Tragedy struck again today at that same intersection, where a bicyclist was hit and killed at about 8:30 a.m. by a westbound Capitol Corridor train. According to The Daily Republic in Fairfield, a McNaughton newspaper, the man had waited for an eastbound train to pass, but did not see the other train before riding onto the tracks.

Full story here