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Town & Country Center
3801 East 29th
Bryan, Tx. 77802
409-8466901
Page/4/The Battalion /Wednesday, December 5, 1984
Trains dangerous at any speed R<
By MICHAEL CRAWFORD
Suitf Writer
The September deaths of two Texas A&M students at the Luther Street
railroad intersection tragically illustrated the destructive power of a train.
An average freight train traveling at (50 mph needs more than a mile and a
half to stop — the equivalent of 18 football fields.
In Texas, in 1982, 89 people died and 338 people were injured as a re
sult of collisions between trains and vehicles. Representatives of Southern
Pacific Transportation Co., which owns the track through College Station
and Bryan, said public awareness is the key to preventing more deaths.
“The only way I know we can get this problem whipped is through pub
lic education,” said Ken Williams, media coordinator for Southern Pacific’s
Operation Lifesaver.
Operation Lifesaver is an educational program sponsored by a coalition
railroad companies and has been operating in Texas since 1977. Its goal
operating
ilerting the community to the laws and
of railroad companies
is to reduce crossing accidents by
dangers of railroad crossings.
“A crossbuck (X-shaped warning sign) is, by law, the same as a yield
sign," Williams said. “Nobody in their right mind would go busting through
a yield sign without looking to see if an 18-wheeler was coming ... Yet people
will never look at railroad crossings (and) the average freight train is 4,()()()
times larger than the average car.”
Nationally, in 1982, 471 deaths occurred in collisions where the vehicle
was moving across the track, while 55 deaths occurred while the vehicle was
stalled or stopped on the tracks.
Yet, in an informal survey at the Jersey Street intersection, between 5
p in. and (5 p.m., 25 cars stopped on the tracks while waiting at the traffic
light — most had multiple occupants.
Because of the low probability of a
person being at a railroad crossing at
the same time a train is coming, many
people become overconfident and do
not look before crossing the tracks,
said Rodney Suites, employee coordi
nator for Operation Lifesaver.
Williams and Suites are former lo
comotive engineers who have both
been involved in train-vehicle collisions.
According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, in 1982,thenii:
her of deaths decreased as train speeds increased. Between SOmphand
mph; 138 people died while between 60 mph and 69 mph; 41 peopleditd
“I think that is reality," Locke said, "(But) You have to balancewtifll
it’s going too fast. 1 think 60 mph is too fast. Obviously if you haveasu]
going 10 mph and somebody is at the track watching it poke along,
going to have idiots who will try and run it.
“I guess it comes down to a question of how much society can I
individual’s hand.”
Suites said Southern Pacific recenth spent more than $400,000lo»
grade track through College Station. The Luther Street crossinghaspii.,
lems, Suites said, but those are due to road conditions rather than alia*
the track.
Railroads crossings have several jurisdictions depending upontheoi:
ership of the road where the track intersects. Southern Pacificownslb
taal track and is responsible for maintaining it, but Luther Streetbelonp
the city.
According to Locke, College Station wanted to close LutherStreetaiia
crossing two years ago, but a lack of attention from Southern Pacificab
rious developers halted action.
“Negotiations were pretty much complete over a year ago," Lockek
“Southern Pacific kept tne paperwork, the agreement/' for another year.
The City Attorney said requests to find tne disposition of the agreeing
produced responses of, "We are working on it."
Development in the area caused Luther Street to be used by more|t
pie than it was originally intended.
“That street is to serve those industrial plants," Lixke said, “it'sn«
serve those apartment complexes. That’s w hy Marion Pugh was put u*
report.” Marion Pugh parallelsItj
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“We have both been involved in accidents where people have died,” Wil
liams said. “We have seen some horrible things and they happen quickly
(and in a) matter of seconds and you have a catastrophe on your hands.”
Stutes said almost half of all collisions occurred at crossings protected
with lights, bells and gates or lights and bells. Excessive train speed is not a
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significant factor in collisions, Stutes said.
Before the deaths of the two Texas A&rM students, the train speed limit
through most of College Station was 60 mph. That limit was reduced to 30
mph in a Nov. 8 meeting of the College Station City Council, despite the ob
jections of Southern Pacific.
The new limit covers virtually all of the tracks within College Station and
puts into law what was a voluntary speed limit of 30 mph. All railroad com
panies have observed this speed limit since Oct. 19.
“This isn’t going to solve anything by slowing the trains down,” Stutes
said. “ Beating the train has very little to do with that,” “Why didn’t the
council foresee the problems years ago and do something about West Lu
ther Street then?”
College Station City Attorney Catherine Locke felt the lower speed limit
for trains was necessary.
“In my opinion, slowing down isn’t going to hurt them (the railroads) fi
nancially,” L.ocke said. “Now they may think otherwise or have some data
which indicates otherwise, but they have to slow down in Bryan anyway.”
The present condition of the rails in Bryan reduces speeds to less than
30 mph.
John Black, traffic engineer for College Station, said the reduced speed
limit allows a motorist to see the approaching train longer and increases re
action time.
Reducing the speed limit may increase collisions, Stutes said, due, in
part, to the added time spent by trains in the city limits and by increased
driver impatience.
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■
boi n Road bet ween Jersey and Luili
streets. "Now when we start lb
about things like dosing the Lui: fi ni
Si reel crossing, we’re talking afe | p(
building other streets, gettingthett __ jhe us
road to build a crossing at Holb: j 5(m t | irol
building traffic lights, building*® | an( | s } 1()1
ing signals at Holleman and getting
the traffic routed on a differenitr#
Black said. “Thai's not
ing.
thing I can do immediately after finishing the report.
Original plans by College Station called for Luther Street to 1
and Holleman Road to lie extended across Wellborn Road and t
Holleman is complete except for those crossings.
The Luther Street report was begun by the city after the two!
dents at that crossing. Black said the report is 90 percent complete.
Although he would not talk spec ifically alxmt his findings, Blacksaidi|
does not believe the crossing represents a dangerous situation. Therdbl
tween Wellborn Road and the Luther Street crossing has a 16per
while a 24 percent grade is considered unsafe. The grade is (fete
the percentage change of a fool in the vertical over a foot in thehorizoniil
"Sixteen percent in Texas is steep,” Black said. “If you gotosomeo
parts of the country, say Colorado, people don’t think twice about thaib
of grade. Some people have more than that in theit driveway.”
However, approaching the crossing from Wellborn Road, it is virt
impossible to see over the tracks.
Stutes said improvements in any crossing may take between onez
three years because of governmental red tape.
“It takes that king because you’ve got to realize everything!
lion,” Stutes said. “The city council has to react, they have to notify tht*
and the state has to react and do certain studies, 'the final analysisdf
mines whether they can go to the federal government and getthefuni
to do the work. If tney have the funds, they have to contact tne railroad*
does an engineering study and tells them the materials needed."
Federal funds for city street crossings generally pay 90 percentolik
cost for installing automatic warning devices. The remaining 10 petti
may be paid by the city or state. Should any crossing fall below the “pn
line" for federal funds, a city can have additional warning signals inst
by paying 90 percent of the cost. The remaining 10 percent mustl
effective
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