[Quietcars] Quieter trains a risk to walkers, USA Today, 04/05/10

Wed Jul 21 19:52:14 UTC 2010

In my neighborhood I have to cross train tracks to walk up to the main 
business street.  Fortunately there is a bell that rings as a signal when 
the train is coming.  However, I have heard that in some communities people 
are complaining about these warning sounds, even at legitimate pedestrian 
crossings.  So we may need to keep on top of this issue.

Debbie

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Dewey Bradley" <dewey.bradley at att.net>
To: "Discussion of new quiet cars and pedestrian safety" 
<quietcars at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Wednesday, July 21, 2010 10:47 AM
Subject: Re: [Quietcars] Quieter trains a risk to walkers, USA 
Today,04/05/10

>I don't know why this is so hard to figure out, Train tracks are not public 
>proprerty, unless you are at a crossing.
> Quiet cars are something totally different.
> If people don't have the sence to stay off the tracks, they wouldn't get 
> hit now would they?
> Too offten kids are trust passing on train tracks, witch are private 
> property, and they get hurt, the pairents always want to sue.
> What's wrong with americans now days.
> No one wants to take responsibility for there actions anymore.
> Its just like when people pull a gun on a police officer, what the heck do 
> you expect to happen?
> If you are at a train crossing, and they have the bells and light, and or 
> the horn, then what do you have to worry about, that's the only place you 
> should cross the tracks, like I said, they are private property.
> Its the same thing as crossing the interstate.
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Nightingale, Noel" <Noel.Nightingale at ed.gov>
> To: <quietcars at nfbnet.org>
> Sent: Wednesday, July 21, 2010 10:30 AM
> Subject: [Quietcars] Quieter trains a risk to walkers, USA Today, 04/05/10
>
>
>>
>> Quieter trains a risk to walkers
>>
>> By Larry Copeland
>>
>> Pedestrian deaths remain steady even as fatalities from train-vehicle
>> crashes decline
>>
>> Anna Marie Stickel, 14, missed the school bus that morning. So she took a
>> shortcut along some railroad tracks that made her trek to school about 10
>> minutes; going the long, safe way around would have taken 30-40 minutes, 
>> her
>>
>> mother says.
>>
>> Listening to her iPod as she and a friend walked along the tracks in
>> January, Anna Marie of Middle River, Md., was hit and killed by an Amtrak
>> train.
>>
>> Anna Marie's friend, who was not listening to music, heard the train just 
>> in
>>
>> time to jump to safety, says Anna Marie's mother, Tara Stickel, 38. They 
>> are
>>
>> deadly quiet," she says of today's trains and tracks. My baby girl had no
>> idea. I know for a fact she hadn't been told how dangerous they are. And 
>> I
>> am just as much to blame for that. I never saw those tracks as a threat.
>>
>> Rail-safety advocates and federal authorities are trying to determine how 
>> to
>>
>> reduce fatalities involving trains and pedestrians, which far outstrip
>> deaths in train-vehicle collisions.
>>
>> Over the past 10 years, the number of deaths involving trains and motor
>> vehicles has dropped 42% to 248. In the same period, deaths involving
>> pedestrians have fallen  6% to 434, the Federal Railroad Administration
>> says. That's (incidents with pedestrians) the No. 1 cause of death in the
>> railroad industry," FRA spokesman Rob Kulat says.
>>
>> Rail-safety advocates are especially concerned about teenagers killed
>> accidentally by trains in hangout spots on or near the tracks. We are
>> working so hard to try to figure out a way to turn this around," says 
>> Marmie
>>
>> Edwards of Operation Lifesaver, an international rail-safety advocacy 
>> group.
>>
>> It may be that in some parts of the country, the railroad tracks are a
>> little bit secluded," Edwards says. So (teens) think it's a place where 
>> they
>>
>> can go to just hang out without other people knowing what they're doing.
>> Sometimes, when you tell this age group this is not where you should go,
>> that's where they're going to want to go
>>
>> A quiet danger
>>
>> Trains are a lot quieter than they used to be.
>>
>> Rails are built in longer, continuous sections of track, so the familiar
>> "clackety-clack" of wheels on the track is gone in many places. The 
>> trains
>> themselves are quieter. Communities across the USA have enacted "quiet
>> zones," where operators are barred from sounding their horns during 
>> certain
>> times of day.
>>
>> That quiet is one reason the number of pedestrians killed by trains has
>> remained steady. Another reason: Many people wear headphones or talk on
>> cellphones while ambling along railroad tracks.
>>
>> When you have train tracks this near high schools or middle schools and
>> students use it as a shortcut, you really need to educate children on 
>> what's
>>
>> going on," says Rep. C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger, D-Md., who helped set up
>> train-safety assemblies at Anna Marie's high school.
>>
>> People take shortcuts across the tracks. Hunters walk along them. People
>> ride all-terrain vehicles on them and sit on them to fish.
>>
>> Many people simply fail to understand how dangerous trains are, says 
>> Richard
>>
>> Ratcliffe, executive director of Maryland Operation Lifesaver, which puts 
>> on
>>
>> safety lessons for students and others.
>>
>> We tell them the train overhangs on each side by at least 3 feet, and 
>> they
>> can overhang by as much as 12," Ratcliffe says. We tell them they don't
>> build trains like they did, and they're a lot quieter. We explain why
>> walking or walking the dog or hanging out on tracks is so dangerous and 
>> why
>> it's against the law.
>>
>> Looking at suicides
>>
>> It's unclear how many of the deaths are intentional. Kulat says the FRA 
>> does
>>
>> not track suicides but estimates that 20% to 50% of train-pedestrian 
>> deaths
>> involve people taking their own lives. Railroads reporting a death soon 
>> will
>>
>> have to indicate whether it was a suicide.
>>
>> Of 33,000 annual suicides in the USA, 1%-2% occur on railroads. Suicide 
>> by
>> rail is "highly lethal, and it's accessible," says Matthew Wintersteen,
>> clinical psychologist at Philadelphia's Thomas Jefferson University and a
>> member of the Pennsylvania Youth Suicide Prevention Initiative. If we can
>> restrict access to lethal means, we can reduce the number of suicides. 
>> The
>> problem, of course, is ... can we restrict public access to the train
>> tracks?
>>
>> Among recent intentional teen deaths:
>>
>> *Two girls in Delaware killed themselves in February by stepping in front 
>> of
>>
>> a high-speed Amtrak train. The girls had made a suicide pact, according 
>> to
>> police.
>>
>> *A high school freshman in Pleasanton, Calif., stepped in front of a 
>> Union
>> Pacific train near her school in February.
>>
>> Kulat says a freight train going 60 mph takes about a mile to stop after 
>> the
>>
>> emergency brake is applied. You can't stop. You can't turn, obviously. 
>> You
>> just have to watch it happen. ... There's the trauma that train engineers 
>> go
>>
>> through (after hitting someone). They go through post-traumatic stress
>> counseling. The one thing they talk about is that they see the people's 
>> eyes
>>
>> right before they hit them. A lot of those engineers don't return to 
>> work.
>>
>>
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