The railroad tracks behind a Kearns [Utah] school have attracted mischievous trouble for years, but after a few recent dangerous incidents, officers and railroad leaders are getting serious about stopping it.
The Sheriff’s Deputy on duty at Kearns High School says students and other teenagers have jumped in front of the train and on the train while it passes. Officers have also had to remove large objects from the tracks.
Teenagers and trouble always seem to go together. At Kearns High school, Deputy Chad Zitting finds both down at the railroad track.
Dep. Chad Zitting, Salt Lake County Sheriff’s Office: “Kids throwing rocks at the train, breaking windows. They’ve actually jumped in front of the train and had the train come to a stop when the engineers got out they jumped aboard the train.”
Deputy Zitting has also found objects on the tracks.
Chad: “I’ve removed big tree trunks, stuff they’ve thrown, couches, stuff they’ve had on there.”
That kind of stuff, if a locomotive hits it, can be deadly. Union Pacific operates the railroad in back of Kearns High School.
Mark Davis, Union Pacific: “Placing anything on the track as a train goes by, it can literally kick that object out and then its literally a missile, it can go through a person, a vehicle, anything.”
Stupid high school brats. Even if someone got themselves killed as a result of this kind of behavior, I doubt that any one of them would learn anything from it.[banghead]
When the B&P reactivated the old B&O branch which runs though downtown Indiana Pa (and right through the middle of IUP campus) last year they had to spend a quite a bit of money on handouts and some lectures to the local college students… plus they still run radio spots about stopping for the train about 6 times a day on all the local radio stations. They also blow at EVERY crossing…even in the middle of the night. Quite a bit of noise considering that there are many crossings, and some are as little as 50 feet apart.
. Unfortunately, they will probably STILL need to put up more gates because there are several idiots a week who still try to beat the train. And of course the college kids still walk the RoW.
All this for 2 trains (one into the power plant, and empties out) a day!
was a pep rally for students in delphos ohio as their team was going to the state playoffs.where were some of the kids standing? right on the CF&E(former pa) row.I have an OL coloring book that I let matts pre-school use and his school now has the same book too.matt knows to stay back from rr tracks.
I would love to disagree with that, but I just can’t. Sad but true…we are your future. Unless you stop us now. The small group of guys sitting just to the right of me drives this point home quite nicely…
And yet, it isn’t always the students’ fault. I overheard a conversation on our radio channel between crew and dispatcher concerning a bunch of high school students running on or along the tracks near us. Turns out it was the school’s cross-country team, and that’s where the coach told them to run! You can bet that the school heard about that one in a hurry!
The UP should raise the speed limit to 90 MPH on the tracks by the High School. If they are that stupid, the problem will eventually work itself out with a little 'ole darwinism.
When stupid kids show up on construction sites thinking that they can take over the place and that everyone is going to come to a halt while they walk through we call the cops and then coninue on as before. If they get killed, it’s their fault. I don’t feel bad at all about it. You can’t possibly be common sense to every person in the country.
When something happens (and it will) the flesh eating lawyers will sue big and the politicians (lawyers with higher paying jobs) will pass stupid laws to ‘protect’ those who cannot think for themself.
Decent fencing isn’t that expensive. Round our way we use the so-called Palasade fence, like a steel picket fence 7’ high with spikey tops and the bottoms burried a foot in the ground.
It’s not just kids throwing rocks at passing trains, jumping out in front of a moving train, or placing objects on the tracks, they’re also using the right of way as a shortcut to the school. I too wonder why the high school was built next to the tracks. The school district must have gotten a good deal on the land. Btw- at the end of the news story, it was mentioned that any student caught near the tracks would be ticketed for tresspassing, or something like that.
At a college out here, they spent several million dollars building an underpass because stupid college students keep trying to beat trains. It seems like almost everytime they got hit, it was by an Amtrak. It is sad when someone stupid enough to get hit by an Amtrak can get into college. How long does it take an Amtrak to pass, about 10 seconds? It seems like these people should have been sitting around somewhere with their beanies with a propeller on top waiting for a brain transplant instead of being in college.
As for the hoodlums in Utah, I think a public flogging and/or caning is in order.
The high school here in Antioch, IL, where I live, is located adjacent to the CN double track. It’s on the west side of the tracks. The CN line also carries Metra passenger trains.
The school’s athletic facilities are across the tracks, on the east side. When the students have PE outside they have to cross the double track main line to get to an from the class. So the CN main line literally bisects the school facility.
There is no over/underpass for the students. The school recently spent $100,000 plus for new lights at the football field, so I guess they needed new lighting for football more than they needed grade seperation for the students.
I’ve never heard of a problem. No bisected student no any vandalism directed at the railroad.
I know some people are going to roll their eyes at this, but if a student were hit by a train while crossing the line to the football field or what not, I think I would take that case. Not against the railroad, but against the school district.
I really think that would be a good negligence action.
That is a danger they know about and do nothing to remedy . . . despite the apparent means. I am sure the railroad, the city, the State, and the Federal Government would probably kick in some of the cost for an overpass.
Don’t get me wrong, I hear you 100 percent. It is a terrible attitude to have. What are we supposed to do? On one job they tried to detain some of the people until the cops showed up, and they were charged with assault (I can assure you that wasn’t what happened, but they were forcibly detained for their own safety and the safety of the workers). You can’t win. So now, as long as all standards of OSHA are followed to the strictest degree, I act as tresspassers aren’t there. I cannot nor can anyone else be held responsible for somone tresspassing and being injured as the result of a failure to heed the warning signs. Nor can I be responsible for the tresspassers’ lack of training with regards to the hazardous areas they are willfully entering in to. Such are the times we live in.
Some of the members here, without a doubt, are either heartless or absolute idiots.
I love how ADULTS are suggesting we just kill the kids crossing the tracks. Great Idea guys. Lets give them all a round of applause for their bright thinking shall we? How about calling the schools and lodging complaints and forcing them to either do something/or have the railroad come in and talk to the kids.
I doubt the brazen people who are suggesting such gruesome outcomes wouldnt say something like that if their own son or daughter had been killed that way…