BLAME THE ECONOMIC GROWTH, INSTEAD OF THE LACK OF SAFETY INFRASTRUCTURE: AS U.S. ECONOMY IMPROVES, FATALITIES AT RAILROAD CROSSINGS RISE
Fatalities
at train crossings are starting to creep back up after years of decline,
possibly due to an improving economy that has increased traffic on both roads
and rails. This is like blaming the hair
for the tool being too short.
The
infrastructure of the railroads pretty much sucks, that is the simple reason
for train accidents and derailments. It
is not only the Metro-North deadly accident; there have been hundreds of
railroad derailments, truck collisions and so on the past few years. Yet, the safety infrastructure has not been
improved a bit.
The bottom line is that
the railroads have not been making much money for them to improve safety. That is why things have been falling apart
and will continue to fall apart unless the safety improves dramatically: more warning signs; better lighting; better
rail tracks, and so on.
The
number of people killed where rail lines and roads intersect has dropped by
more than one-third in the past decade, and since the 1960s has fallen at a
faster pace than highway deaths. Last
year, however, deaths at rail crossings were on a pace to reach the highest
level since 2010, according to Federal Railroad Administration data through
November.
Some cite
the improving economy and an increase in road and freight-rail traffic. Others blame a lack of spending on railroad
improvements, or complacency among local governments. Whatever the reason, this
week’s commuter rail accident in suburban New York has safety groups revisiting
a problem that many had thought was almost solved.
“For
whatever reason, that is the wrong direction. We definitely want to redouble
our efforts,” said Joyce Rose, president of Operation Lifesaver Inc., a
non-profit group devoted to improving rail-crossing safety.
The U.S.
National Transportation Safety Board is investigating how a sport-utility
vehicle ended up trapped on the railroad tracks at a crossing in Valhalla, New
York, on Feb. 3, resulting in the deadliest accident in the history of the
Metro-North Railroad. That commuter line connects New York City and its
suburbs.
The SUV was
pushed about 1,000 feet by the train, and gasoline from its tank fed a fire
that engulfed one of the train cars. The woman driving the vehicle was killed,
as were five people on the train.
Rail
Crossings
Accidents
at these so-called grade crossings have become rarer in the U.S., falling from
3,066 in 2005 to 1,933 in 2009, a 37 percent drop, according to the FRA.
Collisions rose to 2,096 in 2013 and were on pace through November of last year
to go even higher.
The rate of
incidents per million miles of train travel at rail crossings rose in 2013,
from 2.71 to 2.80, according to FRA data. It was the only increase in the past
decade.
Deaths at
grade crossings have followed a similar trend, falling from 359 in 2005 to 248
in 2009 and were as low as 230 in 2012. Last year, there were 239 such
fatalities reported, according to the FRA statistics.
Any time an
area of transportation bucks the broad trend toward improving safety it
suggests the need for more attention, Jim Hall, a former chairman of the NTSB,
said in an interview.
Local and
state governments should study railroad-roadway intersections more carefully to
find ones with the highest risks, said Hall, now the managing partner of Hall
& Associates LLC in Washington. Countries in Europe have done a better job
of separating rails and roads completely to eliminate the risks, he said.
Economic
Conditions
The
economic rebound may be partly to blame. After highway and railroad use fell
during the recession in the late 2000s, accidents also dropped, said Ian
Savage, an economics professor at Northwestern University who has studied the
issue. As driving and railroad traffic increased during the recovery, an
accident increase would be expected, he said.
There was
an average of about 1,600 deaths at rail crossings per year in the 1970s, he
said. That has fallen to fewer than 300 per year since 2008, a decline of more
than 80 percent.
Another
factor may be that most of the easily upgraded crossings have been fixed with
better warnings and lights to alert drivers of approaching trains, he said. The
uncontrolled crossings that remain tend to be in rural areas with little
traffic.
Highway
engineers have been trying to divert federal money that must be spent on rail
crossings to what they believe are more pressing safety issues on roadways,
Savage said.
Driver
Distractions
The growing
use of mobile phones and other electronic devices may be playing a role in the
increase in accidents at rail crossings, Rose, of Operation Lifesaver, said.
“We’re
certainly concerned and a lot of our public awareness and safety education
material are pointed toward making people aware of the dangers of
distractions,” she said.
Her
Alexandria, Virginia-based group, which works with railroads and law
enforcement agencies to educate people on railroad intersection risks,
acknowledges the death toll is far lower than all highway fatalities, Rose
said.
“But it is
almost always preventable,” she said.