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

Thu Jul 22 18:58:04 UTC 2010

I don't often hear them blowing horns, but there is a signal bell that rings 
moments before the safety gates come down to close off traffic as the train 
comes through.  I think it's mostly the horns people are complaining about. 
I don't know of any actual effort to pass legislation forbidding the 
"noise," but apparently some folks (hopefully a small minority) seem to 
think that would be a good idea.

Debbie

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "michael townsend" <mrtownsend at optonline.net>
To: "'Discussion of new quiet cars and pedestrian safety'" 
<quietcars at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Wednesday, July 21, 2010 4:57 PM
Subject: Re: [Quietcars] Quieter trains a risk to walkers, USA 
Today,04/05/10

> Deb, are you stating that they don't like the whistles and bells to warn 
> the
> pedestrians?  It is the duty of the conductor to blow the whistle and ring
> the bell with frequency when they approach a crossing or a commuter stop. 
> I
> live three blocks from a commuter stop and the trains signal the stop much
> before they get to that stop.  At certain times, there are different 
> signals
> sent in the form of warning horns and bells, and I can't figure out what
> those are.  However, one thing that I do know for sure the pneumatic horns
> they use are loud, and you can't miss them, except if your ears are 
> plugged
> with headphones and music.
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: quietcars-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:quietcars-bounces at nfbnet.org] 
> On
> Behalf Of Deborah Kent Stein
> Sent: Wednesday, July 21, 2010 3:52 PM
> To: Discussion of new quiet cars and pedestrian safety
> 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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