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

[ckrugman at sbcglobal.net]

In spite of community complaints the railroads are not going to remove 
signals because doing so will increase their liability. Here in California 
the railroad police and local law enforcement agencies frequently issue 
citations to people and vehicles that do such things as go around crossing 
gates, walk on tracks and cross tracks where there is no crossings. This has 
been going on for several years here.
Chuck
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Deborah Kent Stein" <dkent5817 at att.net>
To: "Discussion of new quiet cars and pedestrian safety" 
<quietcars at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Wednesday, July 21, 2010 12:52 PM
Subject: Re: [Quietcars] Quieter trains a risk to walkers, USA 
Today,04/05/10


>
>
> 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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>>
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