It’s safety versus personal liberty on revising rail crossing law
Controversial legislation pending in the state Senate seeks to give Metra commuters greater freedom to decide if it’s safe to cross railroad tracks when warning signals are activated.
Sen. Matt Murphy, who introduced the measure in October, calls it “a starting point for a conversation.”#147;Is there a way to give people a little bit more economy and not fundamentally compromise safety that the railroads are very concerned about?#148; asked Murphy, a Palatine Republican.The measure hasn#146;t received a lot of publicity but it has gotten the attention and ire of safety experts, who argue easing railroad crossing guidelines would endanger lives and reverse years of education.#147;It gives me a real heartache to think about a bill like that,#148; said Chip Pew, coordinator of Operation Lifesaver, a state program aimed at preventing rail crossing fatalities. #147;Safety sometimes is inconvenient, but the No. 1 concern is for people#146;s lives.#148;Current law forbids people from crossing railroad track walkways when warning signals are activated.The proposal would amend the Illinois Vehicle Code to allow pedestrians at stations to use a walkway crossing at a railroad track in order to reach a waiting train, provided it#146;s stationary and no other trains are approaching, and that the pedestrian does not cross the same track as the waiting train. It also would allow pedestrians to cross tracks on a walkway to catch a train if a railroad employee indicates it#146;s safe to cross.The policy is carefully worded at the suggestion of Palatine commuter Richard Stephenson, who uses Metra#146;s Union Pacific Northwest Line daily to reach his product development job in Chicago.#147;I#146;m not sure if society needs laws written to protect it when people are fully capable of understanding when it#146;s safe to cross the railroad tracks,#148; Stephenson said. #147;It#146;s a self-policing thing. If you don#146;t want to get hurt, don#146;t cross the track when the train is coming or don#146;t turn right on a red light if another car is coming.#148;Stephenson found himself ticketed by police this summer when he used the walkway at the Palatine station to cross a track after the train had left.Such enforcement, however, is unusual, Stephenson said. The Palatine station has three tracks with two platforms and, frequently, passengers will use one walkway to reach the Chicago express train on the middle track despite warning signals, he said.Similarly, some commuters coming home in the evening will cross a track despite activated signals to get to the parking garage, he said, adding that this helps relieve an unsafe crowding situation on the walkway.#147;What bothers me (about the current law) is that it is so parental. We can#146;t trust our citizens to think so we have to write a law that makes it illegal. It really puts an unnecessary inconvenience on the commuter,#148; Stephenson said.The Illinois Commerce Commission, which has responsibility for rail safety, objects to the measure and so do Metra and the Union Pacific Railroad.#147;The bill puts into place several unsafe behaviors we would not support #8212; railroad employee motioning pedestrians around active warning devices and allowing pedestrians to cross the tracks when warning devices are active,#148; UP spokesman Mark Davis said.According to the Federal Railroad Administration, there were 19 incidents involving pedestrians at railroad crossings in Illinois in 2010 and 15 fatalities. For the first 10 months of 2011, there were 14 incidents and seven deaths.The bill #147;gives people permission to run in the face of an active red signal and cross the platform, which for years and years Operation Lifesaver and the railroads have spent a significant amount of time and money educating people that to do that is against the law,#148; Pew said.Pew thinks the various scenarios described in the proposed legislation would end up confusing pedestrians if enacted. Some experts cautioned that second approaching trains #8212; unseen by pedestrians #8212; also pose a risk.#147;People won#146;t read the fine print and think it means they can cross tracks in any given situation. You#146;re not able to split hairs by doing it at Palatine but not at Roselle, for example,#148; Pew said.That#146;s where Stephenson disagrees. #147;It#146;s a personal liberty thing,#148; he said.Palatine police Cmdr. Mike Seebacher said the proposed law sounds carefully thought-out.#147;Our main concern would be that people understand it fully and do not mistakenly think it#146;s OK to cross in front of a train that#146;s stopped. Therein lies the greatest danger. The law covers that, but it is paramount to educate people to know they can#146;t cross in front of a stopped train,#148; Seebacher said.Murphy is hoping to meet with Metra and railroad representatives in the coming months.Among the opposition will be Lanny Wilson, chairman of the DuPage Railroad Safety Council.#147;I am surprised that this has not gone away #8212; surprised and shocked because it#146;s so nonsensical it amazes me,#148; said Wilson, whose daughter died in 1994 at a railroad crossing in Hinsdale.Murphy realizes passage of the bill will be problematic, saying, #147;How do you draft a law that recognizes and empowers the savvy and protects those who are less so?#148;