Just read this today:
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/14/national/14rail.html?pagewanted=all
The NY Times has been running a series of articles on grade crossing safety for the past few months, this one being the latest. What do all of you think about this issue?
Hawkeye
Well, the railways did invent ‘Passing the Buck’.
Signal Mechanic. Signal Department. Canadian National Railways.
Another peice of garbage I was completely insulted by the part about railroad employees…
LC
A new low. They make the Swift Boat Veterans and Michael Moore look like unbiased and reliable sources.
Dave H.
I feel I am being followed. When I was a youngster in New York, beginning about age 12, I protested to the Mayor’s office about the streetcar conversions to bus. And the Times was pro-bus. Then when I worked for an acoustical consulting firm, the Times gave its work poor reviews even when other papers and musicians and actors gave it good reviews. Now that I am advocating public transit and good railroads, the Times becomes anti-rail. So, if I am guilty of Paranoya, maybe I have good reason? Help!
Hmmm…Do GM, Standard Oil (BP now), and Goodyear (or was it Goodrich?) own stock in The Times?
I find it interesting that they had to go all the way to Louisiana to find a judge willing to say something bad about Operation Lifesaver. (It sounds like his mind was made up and he didn’t want to be confused with the facts.)
DaveKlepper, could we talk you into working for a trucking firm? 
Dave H.
Any of this have something to do with FRA handing the Times their lunch for their earlier screw-up in July of this year and now wanting to exact revenge?
http://www.fra.dot.gov/us/press-releases/33
So how come they don’t provide any numbers on how many of those 255 deaths so far this year occured at “dangerous” crossings? I will agree that a certifiably dangerous crossing should be dealt with, but even the article says that government provides the equipment. Why does the article not take governments to task for not providing the necessary equipment? One is led to believe it is the railroad’s fault… (Which is, of course, the slant of the entire article.)
For that matter, what if the offending brush (or other obstruction) isn’t on the RR ROW?
As for running any sort of campaign around a related event - it happens all the time. We do it in the fire service. We may not do a big ad campaign, but if smoke detectors would have saved a life, you can believe we’re gonna talk 'em up!
My [2c]
These stories by the Times just burn me up. Yes, railroads need to maintain the equipment and cut the brush, but drivers have to take responsibility for themselves. Right? Slow down, look, be careful. If some guy just drove through an intersection without looking to see what color the traffic light was, or without looking to see if any other traffic was coming, or because he was trying to beat a tractor trailer, and he got hit and killed, everybody would say it was his fault. But somehow, when that sort of thing happens at a grade crossing and a train hits a car it’s automatically the railroad’s fault. Sorry, but that’s just – well, you know what it is.
If the trucking firm needs a Jerusalem representative I just might be interested. I’m studying to be an Orthodox Cantor at Jerusalem Yeshiva (Rabbinical Academy). Of course it would help if the trucking firm often went intermodal to give railroads some business some of the time.
Interestingly, before I got a part-time job with the Boston and Maine, I worked while at MIT as a truck dispatcher for an Ice Cream distributor in Cambridge, But I don’t remember the name of the Ice Cream Company. I do remember the name of myboss at the Boston and Maine, Ernie Bloss. This is all about 50-55 years ago. And my Boss at my summer job with Electro-Motive in La Grange was Bert Heffner.
.
I’d have to agree with what seems to be the sentiment of everyone who has replied so far that this article is heavily biased against Operation Lifesaver. And as someone who firmly believes in the advantages of rail transportation over other modes I find this somewhat disheartening since Operation Lifesaver has been a succesful means of educating the public about railroad safety. I’d also agree that by far the majority of grade crossing injuries and deaths are due to unsafe driving and just plain stupidity on the part of motorists a fact which I don’t think this article made very clear. To the uneducated reader it evokes a strong bias against the rail industry.
In response to LC’s comment, I thought the article painted railroad employees in a pretty positive light, for example, this excerpt:
“signal-workers union notified the group that “warning device malfunctions are a factor in driver behavior at railroad crossings” and that the police should be told of this. The minutes show that the recommendation was unanimously rejected.”
In the previous NY Times articles on this subject the authors have always been careful to specify that the railroad management, not the average employees were at fault in questionable grade crossing accidents. Not being a railroad employee, my statement here probably doesn’t mean much, however, as a private citizen, I would say that my personal opinion of railroad employees improved after reading this article, maybe others who read it will feel the same.
Furthermore, there are legal issues about running media bltiz campaigns when a high profile trial is about to occur, Jurors are not supposed to do outside research and are only supposed to be influenced by the courtroom proceedings. In this case Operation Lifesavers tactics are highly questionable, and should not be dismissed, if only because it sets bad legal precedence.
Ultimately, I was not particularily surprised by this article, as much as we may enjoy and su
Thank-you Hawkeye.
Signal Mechanic. Signal Department. Canadian National Railways.
This part is what bothers me most. I KNOW how it feels to be there. I don’t need an AMBULANCE CHASER to tell me… No bias here…nah, the great NYT tells it like it is…FOFLMAO…
LC
Ms. Hardy, who late last year obtained a court order to stop the group from running a media blitz during a trial, complained that the railroads used the news media to show how their employees “suffer grievously” because of accidents caused by “stupid” motorists
LC, yeah, I understand what you mean now. In my opinion the tactic that Ms. Hardy is using is really just as bad or worse than what she accuses railroads of doing. Namely she says railroads try to shift the focus onto employees and motorists and away from themselves, while she essentially marginalyzes those same employees. In the end, it’s the conductors and engineers that get caught in the middle. But that’s the case in almost any industry, and I suppose is the reason why they have unions…
On a similar note, the latest issue of Trains, on p. 27 has a small blurb about the installation of camera’s and microphones on some Union Pacific locomotives as part of a test program to improve the collection of information in the event of an accident or questionable situation. I would be especially interested to hear what those of you who are railroad employees think of this program. Will it actually improve safety by catching problems before they occur (and forcing railroads to improve grade crossings and safety training), or simply aid in investigations to determine who is at fault? Furthermore, would such devices improve morale among train crews, or would they create more stress?
I’ve noticed in my own observations of train operations that different crews sometimes respond differently to the same situation in the same spot on the same route. Are there specific rules about where and how often an engineer needs to sound the horn? Or is this left up to individual crews?
To further complicate this issue, I have heard of towns enacting noise ordinances that limit the times when an engineer can sound the horn, and the frequency. It seems to me that this sort of policy runs counter to the safe operation of a railroad anywhere, and that it would be in a communities best interest to encourage railroads to require the sounding of horns as much as possible, but then, I happen to like that sound… :-). Any thoughts?
Hawkeye