I saw a new political advertisement on television today for "Angelsontrack.org". It appears to be organizing for more automated gates at crossings, and generally for a shift of responsibility from the motorist to the owning railroad. The spot shows a grandfather driving a minivan, and a schoolbus, and the voiceover talks about "good drivers suddenly crushed by a 200 ton locomotive" (approximate quote).

The organization is funded by an Ohio family mourning the death of their teenage son at a crossing, from funds won in a lawsuit against Conrail.

Relevance here: I suppose many preservation lines have unprotected crossings, and this organization could motivate locals to demand gate installation.

I saw that commercial the other day and found it confusing, and didn't notice their slant until you mentioned it here. They are all about passing the blame to railroads claiming weeds block line of sight (but no mention of listening for horns/whistles). They even offer hints on how to win your case:

http://www.angelsontrack.org/whattodo.html

Speaking of rail preservation, I'd be afraid of those railfan excursions who use lightly used rails for special event trips falling victim. I've been on weekend fantrips where the locals were confused because the rail line only sees a few Monday-Friday freights. People need to adhere to the golden rule of crossing safety- expect a train at any time in any direction!

This is the old "Not-my-fault-man" knee jerk reaction.

It was always "Stop-Look-and-Listen" and I still do.

If the teenager had the sound do loud in his car that he could not hear the train, it was his fault for not driving safely, not the railroad's.

Oh Well.

Doug vV

Good point, while this site goes on and on about not being able to hear the locomotive's horn due to factory noise, trucks, etc, etc.... makes no mention of how loud the driver had his/her stereo cranked up inside the vehicle.

Also, take note, not one mention anywhere on this site of Operation Lifesaver. Coincidence?

I hate to say it, but this group and it's anti-railroad slant have been known for quite some time. I've known of them for at least five years. It is not coincidental that they do not mention Operation Lifesaver, which they view to be a railroad industry lap dog. They view OL as the industry's mouthpiece which is used to shift the blame from the "big corporations" to John Q. Public.

Take a look at the links for Angels On Track-you'll note that all of them lead to other groups with similar attitudes: grade crossing improvements should be legislated upon the railroads, at their expense and that all motorists and other persons are innocent victims of heartless railroads. I will argue that while railroad negligence has led to occasional auto vs. train incidents, the vast majority of them are the result of negligence on the part of the motorist. Certainly the three auto vs. train incidents that I was involved with while at TVRM were exclusively the fault of the motorists involved (one being quite serious).

Interesting how on their RR Safety page, the first 2 paragraphs are how crossing accidents have been increasing, and they site their sources (all 1997-2001 data), yet just below that, they show the true stats which show an ever decreasing incident count (from 1975 to 2007) Highest total was in 1978 with 945 total incidents, and in 2007 there were only 120, with deaths going from 83 to 8. Just too bad you have to scroll down 2-3 page lengths to see the real facts.

IIRC the two parents that formed Angels appeared on a Discovery show about train accidents a couple times. During the show they showcased their son's accident, which boiled down to 4 major factors: 1. Their son was driving fast with friends after a party on a road he knew had a crossing that was constantly in use. 2. Weeds had grown tall in a culvert on both sides of the crossing. 3. There was a train parked on the near track blocking his view of the train coming from that direction. 4. A signal maintainer had left a testing jumper in place in the signal cabinet. (their claim, not sure if true) To me it seems that 3 of the 4 factors could have been eliminated by a responsible driver, that knew the area.

Also it seems odd that in their instructions about what to do after a crossing incident , the first thing to do is to find a lawyer that has persecuted multiple railroad crossing incidents. Boy, talk about feeding the ambulance chasers. On their RR Safety page, the last of the 6 things you can do is: I think that might be one of the few real solutions that appear on their site.

Another interesting `fact' they post is: But on the crossing incident chart on their site, it shows 146 total incidents, 21 deaths and 59 injuries, so where did these other 381 deaths and 1310 injuries come from, maybe trespassers???? Also with their statement that deaths in train-vehicle crashes have not decreased since 1984, they actually have (assuming they all happen at crossings, after all where else will the path of a car and train cross??) been reduced by more than in half (1984, 50 deaths, 1999, 21 deaths). With these extra/unreported deaths and injuries, unless they were parking their cars in the middle of a field straddling the tracks, it will be awful hard to use the increased sound insulation of cars as an excuse. I guess they will have to use the increased available volume of portable music players next. Probably the next thing they will want the trains to do, short of not run at all is to sound their horns the whole length of the track, but then that would piss off the quiet zone people. It is always interesting how people twist facts for their use.

Rich C.

They started off as a grieving family. I can't say as I blame them for that part of it. They have let their grief get the best of them, unfortunately.

In the same vein, the ad that gets my blood boiling is the global warming ad with the man that steps out of the way of the little switch engine and leaves the little girl in the tracks...

I have degree's in Civil and Electrical Engineering and have designed computers and interfaced them to metal lathes. To get this sort of ability, you have to be very strong in mathematics.

I have repeatedly stated that the "raw data" can be interpreted in so many ways using statistics that the same data can result in diametrically opposing views being both provable.

That is way I never believe any pole where I can not see what questions were asked. Depending on how the questions are worded, and how the "analyst" interprets it, you can prove anything including that, for example, if A=B+C then A=B. I have the wild proof.

My opinion of grade crossing separation is that whoever was there first does NOT have to pay for the separation. If a wagon trail was there first, then the railroad should shoulder the cost.

Another item, why are traffic accident deaths not reported daily? As I recall, Detroit MI has 39 deaths from traffic accidents a year. This is for ONE CITY, not the entire US. Yet these anti-RR people are claiming that the 402 deaths per year for railroad crossings IS worthy of panic.

Assuming there are about 400 cities in the US the size of Detroit and that all the traffic deaths are in only the 400 cities, this makes traffic deaths per year about 15,600. This is some 40 times more important than railroad crossing deaths!

Oh well, to each his own even if they can not size up reality.

Doug vV

I'm going to take a guess and assume that virtually everything on their website was written by a lawyer.

Take a look at this video I took, you talk about stupid people. this was taken down at Abrams yard a few years back.

I bet this New RR Crossing Advocacy Group whould say they were in the right. lol.

The Do's & The Do Not's of Tresspassers
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGlfEoOD6Jw

Len.

My guess is that their statements and claims were written by someone who has an agenda-anyone with a decent collegiate education can put something like that together. Being in a line of work where I deal with attorneys daily, it's the minority of low life attorneys who give the majority a bad rep. Best defense is to fight fire with fire-find attorneys who are railfans and get them involved to defend your organization.

I would love to take a paint ball gun to their billboards around northern Ohio. Big skull and cross bones that say "Bad crossings kill good drivers" To bad the paint would wash off. This is such a miss leading statement.
We used to have on old guy that reffered to all of our crossings as "Deadly and bloody crossings" ( he was not english).
I guess back in the 50's one of his budy's drove into the side of a Nickel Plate train.This man designed racing motorcycles. both dirt and Asphalt. Now there is a safe thing to do.

The skull and crossbones is nothing new. IIRC, Operation Lifesaver used that in the 1980s, but replaced the crossbones with a railroad crossbucks. I always approach railroad crossings with extra caution.



Depends on your perspective. My parents are private pilots and regularly attend Reno. Racing motorcycles and cars is infinitely safer than racing airplanes. As it is, it's not unusual for one or two fatal crashes to occur during the Reno Air Races annually. What's really scary is that recently, there has been consideration of expanding the races to include jet aircraft. As it is, a great race at Reno is one where no one dies.