Just in time for the beginning of the summer driving season, retired claims investigator for Union Pacific Scott Gunter spoke to the Hope Lions Club Monday about the need to be careful at railroad crossings.
Gunter, also a Justice of the Peace for the Hempstead County Quorum Court, began his talk by saying that if anyone present was involved in or knew someone involved in a car-train accident, he did not mean to hurt any feelings. Every accident is different, he said. “I’m just going to talk about general principles of grade crossing safety.”
A grade crossing refers to when roads intersect with train crossings at the same level. Some of those crossings are blocked, meaning that arms come down to block traffic when a train is about to go by. Some are not and rely on lights or just signage and the driver’s awareness.
Gunter, who worked for Union Pacific for 35 years, said he investigated “hundreds if not thousands of accidents,” pointed out that Hope has two train lines, Union Pacific and Kiamichi, with the Union Pacific trains going a bit faster. Last year in the U.S. there were 2,100 grade crossing accidents with 248 fatalities and 754 hurt. In Arkansas, there were 60 incidents with seven fatalities and 26 injuries, Gunter said.
Arkansas has 2,654 grade crossings. Gunter said 35 percent of these are “active, meaning they have gates, lights.” The passive ones have what he called crossbuck signs.
Gunter said train crews usually consist of two persons, with the engineer sitting on the right-hand side and the conductor on the left. “The engineer is supposed to sound the horn, keep a proper lookout, sound the bell and keep his train within speed. Most of the tracks that are Union Pacific are 70 miles to 80 miles per hour tracks. The fastest train tracks is Amtrak. They can run 70 miles per hour. The engineer is supposed to sound his horn 15 seconds before he enters this crossing.”
Gunter said this brings up the number one complaints from drivers, that the engineers don’t sound their horns. But the number one complaint from residents near trains is the engineers sound their horns too often.
The conductor monitors the engineer’s maintenance of speed and records stops in a log. When engineers have to put on the brakes in an emergency situation, they risk a derailment in certain situations when they do so. “It takes a train about a quarter of a mile to half a mile to stop,” Gunter said.
“What is an engineer’s worst fear? He sees a school bus. I’ve investigated two. Luckily no one was on the bus, thank the Lord,” Gunter said. “The second thing an engineer fears, gasoline or hazardous materials trucks.” He investigated a case in which one such collision occurred and the two crew members as well as the truck driver were all killed.
Gunter said there is no reason to be using one’s cell phone when approaching a grade crossing. “Put them down. Use hands free. There's nothing so important that you can't talk to someone later.” Gunter revealed that while drivers often deny using their devices when talking to investigators, records can be subpoenaed and use during accidents can be revealed.
Gunter also urged drivers against trying to beat approaching trains at crossings. “there's nothing so important that it can't wait one minute. That's one of my Arkansas driver's license test questions when I was 16. What is a flashing red light mean? It means stop. What is a flashing red light at a railroad crossing mean? Speed up? My test said it means stop. I think I got that one right.”
Gunter next turned the subject of the lights themselves. “Have the lights at the crossing ever failed? Yes. Anything designed by man will fail. The only one I’ve ever investigated, we had an ice storm probably around 2000. I was out of power at my house in Pine Bluff seven days. Crossings have batteries. The batteries worked a couple of days. We bought a generator to put on our crossing to push the flashers. Somebody stole it,” he said.
Trains were running at reduced speeds, at about 20 miles per hour, but they did hit a car in McNeil. The driver was unhurt but when she asked Gunter if the lights had worked, he had to say no.
In terms of protecting train companies from bad claims, Gunter called the advent of video cameras being placed on trains a “game-changer.” He had been involved in making the case at Union Pacific that installing the cameras, which was known to be time-consuming, would be a good investment and this has proven to be so. “That has been the best thing they ever did,” Gunter said. “Because it does reinforce that our crews are doing the right thing. Those folks are just like me and you. They want to do their job. They want to go home to their families safely and not have an accident. So that was one of the best investments that we did.”
Gunter told a story of going to a fatal vehicle and train accident scene in Queen City, Texas and seeing a motorcyclist drive up. It was the son who was on the phone with his father when he heard a train horn and then a loss of connection. The father had gone across tracks in front of a train. “He said ‘Bless his heart, my dad was not paying attention.’ It cost him his life,” Gunter recalled.
In a question and answer period, Gunter was asked why train signal lights can be on with no train approaching. He said sometimes the tracks pick up a signal caused by the environment and that can trigger the caution lights.
Earlier in the meeting, four Leo Club members Raley Atkinson, Savannah Fields, Lu Ann Murphy and Heaven Garcia from Garrett Memorial Christian School were inducted.
The Lions are holding a fish fry today at the Fair Park Coliseum that will begin serving at 4:00 p.m. and will be raising money for the Charitable Christian Clinic.
