Following the death of Sabrina Latimer, a young girl hit by a CN freight train in Brockville ON with her friend samantha Lefebvre, who survived, while waiting on the south track for a North bound train to pass earlier in the year, the city of Brockville has decided on several safety measures at the city’s 5 main line level crossing, which include;
-reinstating train whistles between 6am and 8pm
-installing pedestrian barriers over sideqwalks and chain link fences around them as well as second train warning devices
Does any one no where such devices have been used in the past or can provide any photos? I can easily imagine what the gates look like, but I’m not sure about the second train warning devices. They say there will be visual and audible warnings, being designed and built by CN in Montreal.
I’m not familiar with any second train warning devices. The closest thing that I’ve seen to something like that is at a grade crossing where the bell stops ringing when the gates are completely lowered. If the gates are already lowered for one train, the bell will start ringing again when a second train hits the circuit.
The UP has come up with what might be the best safety barrier to date… rose bushes. People climb over, or cut through, chain link fences and ignore other warnings such as bells and whistles; but nobody likes walking through rose bushes.
We’re talking an entire new level of education for the traveling public here. I almost think that you would have to put up signs that light up and say “There is another train coming on the other track” along with an audible alarm (maybe even a spoken warning). Any lesser warning will require a lot of training, so they understand that the bells ringing again, or another light flashing, or whatever, means what it means.
Short of erecting a fence around the pedestrians, if they want to cross, they will. And get hit.
On the BNSF, the bell stops ringing when the train hits the inner circuit (somebody else please give the correct technical term)–and yes, as Mr. Hegewisch describes, the bell will begin to ring again if another train comes. All that’s lacking is the education of the public.
I remember reading and seeing photographs of signs along the New York Central main line that would light up with a “Wait–Second Train” warning under similar circumstances. I may have seen an actual sign like that around Elkhart, but don’t know if it was working.
They did put, at one crossing only, a sign that reads something like “always watch for a second train”, but it was not the crossing involved, and it was only one of the five. If no one has any pics, I suppose I’ll just have to wait a couple months for them to put them in. Still, the best safety precaution reinstated was the train whistles. I don’t understand why people feel they need them banned. They are a serious safety issue, despite what anyone says. I still recall in the town of Prescott, 3 miles of track from where I live (I checked the mileposts), they wanted and still do to ban them, with officials claiming, and I quote, “banning train whistles is not a safety issue at all. It is a quality of life issue only.”
Biggest load of bull s*** that I’ve heard for a while.
I’ve seen dense thorn bushes along the tracks, man that does keep people out. But I always wonder, how would employees get off the property when doing track work and such?