Investigating Railroad Crossing Malfunctions in the Valley

[NS Newsfeed]

HARRISONBURG, Va. -- Waiting on a train at a railroad crossing can be a frustrating experience.



What can make it even worse is when the lights are flashing, the gates are down, but no train ever crosses the road. It's a dangerous issue that many people have told WHSV about.



"We'll get a call about the crossing arm being down but no train in sight," explained Harrisonburg Police Officer Chris Monahan.



Harrisonburg police say that the lights flash and the gates block the road without a train more often than you would think.



"We do have calls, probably several times a week," said Monahan.



This problem happens when trains switching cars get too close to a crossing and stop before blocking traffic. It can also happen when the electronics that bring the gates down wear out or need to be replaced. When that happens, the signal activates as a fail-safe feature to protect people from the gates not activating when a train is about to cross.



Even so, false alarms at these crossings are a problem that can lead to accidents like one in Grottoes in 2014.



The man involved said he saw a train sitting still on one side of the crossing as the gates were down. Assuming nothing was coming, he crossed the railroad here, and never saw the train coming the other way.



It's an example of the kind of crash that happens across the country.



"I think I can put it in a nutshell for you. It's a big problem," said Melvin Jones, the regional coordinator for Operation Lifesaver, an organization that promotes railroad safety.



He agrees that false alarms at railroad crossings can lead to drivers running the lights and putting lives at risk.



"When you see tracks, think train," explained Jones.



Across the nation, 1,193 people were involved in a grade crossing accident in 2013. Of those, 250 were killed.



In Virginia, nine people were in train crashes and one person was killed that same year.



The trend continued in Feb. 2015, when a crash in New York killed six people.



Jones knows what that's like, "A deputy that I had taught in the police academy, while responding to a call, was struck and killed while responding to that call, and that hit home."



That's one reason why Jones works so hard to promote rail safety, especially considering the physics of trains.



When you choose to go around those gates, putting on the brakes for a train is a lot harder than it is for you to put on your car's brakes.



When you put the brakes on with your car, it might take a few hundred feet to come to a stop after going 55 miles per hour; however, when a train applies its brakes going 55 miles per hour, it takes 18 football fields, or one mile, to come to a complete stop.



Norfolk Southern, the railroad responsible for the crossing in much of the Valley, declined to go on camera, but did provide information about several crossings in the area.



At Elizabeth Street, false activations were reported multiple times in October then again in January.



At Rock Street, there were multiple reports in Oct. 2014.



On Bluestone Drive, there was a report of an activation failure back in September. When investigators tried to recreate the failure, they couldn't. So they gave the signal a test, which it passed, and the next train passed safely. This particular crossing is one the Harrisonburg Department of Public Transportation has had to deal with in the past.



"For us, it was just looking at our options. If we're not able to physically move a bus, we've got to get that information out," said HDPT Transit Supervisor Avery Daugherty



Bus drivers dealt with arms being down without a train on the first day of class for the Fall 2014 semester at James Madison University. A problem the department was quick to tweet about to let everyone know. With situations like this, the city, police, and railroad all work together to keep us safe.



"If something like this, in the rare instance that it happens, we all work together as a collaborative effort with JMU, Norfolk Southern, and the City of Harrisonburg to ensure safety," explained Daugherty.



Just to make sure the next time the gates come down, to play it safe and wait.



Norfolk Southern said they will monitor future false activations more closely at the locations featured in this report.