Editorial: Why do drivers still go around train gates?
A lowered gate with lights flashing and horns sounding at a railroad crossing screams an immediate and obvious warning that can mean the difference between life and death.
The signals are not meant to herald an inconvenience that can be averted if drivers get around the gates fast enough or pedestrians hurry across the tracks. Rather, they means stop. Be patient, and allow several tons of moving machinery to pass safely, without interference.
But despite all the warnings, public service announcements and tickets written by police, dozens of people each year play an odd game of chicken, and gamble they can beat a train and get across the tracks.
Is saving a few minutes worth the risk of loss of life and limb? Of course not, but it happens anyway, including just last week when a 60-year-old Arlington Heights woman drove a Jeep SUV around activated crossing gates at Northwest Highway and Arlington Heights roads. Her Jeep was struck by a slow-moving Metra train and pushed about 500 feet down the tracks from the intersection.
She was lucky to have escaped serious injury, but she did receive a ticket that could result in a $500 fine - a relatively small price to pay for such a dangerous decision.
The truth is that train collisions with vehicles and pedestrians happen much too often.
The Federal Railroad Administration's preliminary statistics for 2019 show 93 train/vehicle and train/pedestrian collisions in Illinois, an increase of 7% over 2018. There were 19 fatalities at public grade crossings in the state last year. During the past decade, Illinois has averaged about 100 train/vehicle collisions per year, with a high of 124 in 2015 and a low of 88 in 2017.
The sheer volume of train traffic in Illinois increases the chances of encounters with cars, trucks and pedestrians. We have the country's second largest rail system and the largest freight hub. Illinois has 7,595 public highway-rail grade crossings - second only to Texas - and 60 railroad companies operate on about 7,400 miles of track. About 1,200 trains operate each day in the Chicago region.
Some collisions are accidents, such as a car skidding on wet or icy pavement or being pushed during an accident into a train. However, impatience, distraction, and good, old-fashioned poor decision-making - as in the Arlington Heights case - are factors all too often.
State and federal rail authorities have improved rail crossing warning devices and developed education programs, such as Operation Lifesaver, and separated cars and pedestrians from rail crossings in some locations.
But technology, devices and education are only part of the safety solution. The rest is up to drivers and pedestrians to be more engaged, more patient and less distracted.