About the Author J. D. Santucci (a.k.a. "Tuch") began his railroading career in 1978 as a trainman on the Missouri Pacific. After a round of lay-offs in 1985, Tuch embarked on a railroad odyssey, working in many different situations for different roads. This column tries to explain some of the nuts and bolts of the job and also demonstrates what we have to deal with on a regular basis within and without the industry. Tuch currently works through freights out of Chicago for Canadian National/Illinois Central. ©1999, 2003-2007 JD Santucci. Logo ©2002 The Railroad Network. By J.D. Santucci

October 18, 2003
Well it is October 18th again. This year, for a switch, we are not going to be discussing collisions between trains and motor vehicles. We will not focus on the aftermath of how such collisions affect the families and train crews involved. For a change, this year we will discuss collisions that did not occur and the motorists that drive like Mr. Magoo.

For those of you not old enough to remember Mr. Magoo, here's a very brief background summary of him. Mr. Magoo was a cartoon character dating back to at least the early 1960's. He was noted for his extreme nearsightedness. Magoo's personality and voice were characterized by the late Jim Backus. Mr. Backus was star of film and television. Many of you may recall him from the role he played as Thurston Howell III of Gilligan's Island.

Anyway, Mr. Magoo was about blind as a bat and drove around in what resembled an old Model T Ford. He would drive on sidewalks, into buildings, through barns and pig sties, on the wrong way on highways and also onto railroad tracks. The introduction of each episode chronicled his poor vision accompanied by a catchy little theme song and it closed with the phrase;

"Oh Magoo, you've done it again."

Somehow through all of this, Magoo was never seriously injured and obviously being this was a cartoon, didn't suffer a horrible death. You might say Magoo always fell into a bucket of sh*t and came up smelling like a rose.

Unfortunately, real life doesn't always parallel that of Mr. Magoo.

Now on with today's lesson.

For those not familiar with the significance of today's date, back in 1989 I was involved in a tragic and fatal collision with an automobile at a road crossing. Three teenaged girls met their demise as a result of the actions of the driver behind the wheel. I will not recount that story again now. If all goes well and we ever find a publisher, that entire story will be in the book.

A near miss is the term used to describe a near collision. Near miss is truly a top ten ranked oxymoron. If we nearly missed him then I would think it means we hit him. Wouldn't near hit, near collision or perhaps close call be far more correct? Apparently not. So let's examine what the industry had dubbed a near miss instead.

Some yahoo drives around the lowered gates in front of my approaching train. We are bearing down on him at a very high rate of fuel consumption. We miss colliding with him by mere inches, or feet, or perhaps even yards. But nonetheless, we nearly had a collision. And it doesn't have to be at a crossing with gates, it could be a crossing equipped with flashing lights or even just cross bucks. If you fail to yield the right of way to an approaching train and shoot across, you have put yourself at tremendous risk and could get clobbered. You got really lucky this time and didn't, but you nearly got hit. And they call this a near miss. Once again that "They" family is at it yet again. We really have to figure out how to get these people out of railroading. "They" can be worse and more annoying than the railroad gods themselves.

Now some people are offended when I refer to those motorists who disregard any type of warning device at a railroad crossing be it passive (cross bucks) or active (flashing lights with or without bells, with or without gates) as idiots, morons or yahoos. I have a few other names for them as well too. I'm sorry, if you feel your life is really worth risking just in order to reach the Jewel or Target two minutes earlier. If you are one of these people than terms like moron, idiot and yahoo are true representations of what you are. You don't even want to know what I call people that ignore my approaching train and the warning devices when they have passengers in the car with them, especially children. Suffice it to say if printed here in our little forum it would have to appear like this: #$%@#&@#$#%*(%)#@$*#&^@.

I will not apologize to anybody for calling them something really bad when they play Russian roulette with their lives and even more so when they do it with the lives of others. In addition to risking their lives and the lives of innocent passengers in their motor vehicles, they are also placing the lives of the crew of the train in peril as well. Yes, sometimes the crews on the trains involved in a collision are also injured or worse in a grade crossing collision. I am personally acquainted with railroaders and have heard from and about others that have been injured in collisions at crossings. I have also heard about railroaders killed in crossing collisions.

Those that disregard the warning devices at railroad crossings are in a sense, just like Mr. Magoo. They are blind to the dangers they have willfully placed themselves into the path of. They clearly cannot see the fact they are risking their lives.

Now we will do a study in some of these so-called near misses.

This past winter I was working train 281 from Markham to Gibson City, IL. At Gilman, IL we diverge off the Chicago Sub and onto the Gilman Sub. The wyes at Gilman for accomplishing the diverging move are both restricted to 10 MPH. So here we come starting into the north leg of the wye beginning our diverging move between the two lines. This particular evening I had an IC SD70 locomotive in the lead. This unit has the standard cab and control stand.

It had snowed the day previous and the streets in Gilman were still snow and ice covered, although it appeared they had been plowed. Snow and ice on pavement make for a great combination, especially at night. We are clip-clopping along through the wye at the prescribed 10 MPH. As our train approached 2nd Street, the very south of the three crossings right in town, I observed a GMC or Chevy pick up truck approaching from the east and heading west. I could see the driver had no intention of stopping as he started to swing to the left of center of the road. Without any effort to slow at all, he rolled right around the lowered gates. As he did so, he began to accelerate. Let's do a quick study in the laws of physics here. Snow and ice on the road, a pick up truck accelerating on such pavement while making a gradual weaving path, said pick up truck with virtually no weight in the back to help hold the road. Can anybody calculate the solution to this equation? I sure could and did so before all the addends were even summed. You could say I saw this one coming.

The rear end of the truck decided it did not wish to follow the lead of the front. It swung out and began to fishtail. With all the momentum involved on that slippery pavement which was producing a minimum amount of resistance, the rear end of the truck quickly caught up to the front of the truck and passed it. Yes friends and neighbors, he did a very well orchestrated 1800 turn directly in front of my approaching train. I don't believe he could have done so well on purpose.

There is only one real problem when one performs a 180 with a motor vehicle, particularly on snowy, icy pavement; you tend to lose complete control and pretty much have no input on where you will come to a stop. This night would be no exception. The momentum he had going took the truck above and beyond 180 reaching about 190 or so. The truck spun around and wound up stopping just short of hitting a telephone pole right at the crossing. Had he struck the pole, ye would have done so by backing into it. When the truck stopped the front end of it was out in the foul of the track I was on. This means the front of his truck was in a position to be struck by my train.

Undaunted, this guy pulls the truck out completely in front of me and then he turns it around and heads west on 2nd Street. He was not going to wait for my train; he was getting across no matter what. As he was making his mid-course correction, I noticed there were two other people in the truck with him and one of them appeared to be youngster.

Now while all this in going on, I am still rolling towards him. I was sounding the whistle constantly with the bell also ringing the entire time. The ditch lights and headlights were also illuminated. I guess Magoo here was just completely blind to the fact that I was about to plow right into him. I was sitting up straight and actually on the edge of seat while very closely and carefully observing the activity taking place in front me and my approaching train. While I did have my hand on the automatic brake valve handle, I made no attempt to put the train into emergency. My Conductor was getting a little panicky though.

The truck cleared out of the way and we rolled right on through. I couldn't get the license plate number from the truck as it was covered with snow. Had I been able to read it, I would have reported it to the CN Police and they would have tracked down his address and sent the owner a letter reminding him of safety at railroad crossings. His name would also be entered into a data bank. Should there ever be an episode involving this guy with a train, there would be a history of unsafe driving established showing a previous disregard for safety at railroad crossings.

Now this entire event probably didn't take more than five or six seconds from the moment he began to fishtail until he finally cleared from my path. I missed him by at least two or three seconds. I wonder if this moron went bragging about this episode to his friends.

Once the guy was clear my Conductor asked me why I didn't put the train into emergency. I told him because I would never have come close to stopping in time. He seemed shocked and wondered how I knew I wouldn't get stopped. I explained the rapid calculation in time and distance I was doing in my head during the entire time this event was taking place in front of us and knew that putting the train "into the hole" would be pointless. If he got stuck when he almost hit that pole after doing his 180 or couldn't clear up quickly enough, we were going to him whether I put the train into emergency or not.

I had no resources available to me that would get my train stopped short of the crossing, even at 10 MPH. Being that we had over 70 loads of automobiles that night, the entire train would not have even been in emergency at the point of impact, even if I hit the button on my head end device to dump the air on the tail as well. He seemed amazed that I knew this and could calculate such a fact so quickly. His comment then was that he could never have been an Engineer as he didn't think he had the nerve for it.

He complimented me on the fact that I held my cool. He seemed amazed that I did not do something rash. Never once did I panic or anything while this scene was playing out before us. Although I must admit, I did utter a few very well chosen and unprintable words in a little commentary about this driver as this was all transpiring. I believe I brought up his education and some family heritage. I'm reasonably certain I also compared him to several body parts as well.

Over the years I have observed people routinely driving around the lowered gates at a crossing in front of my approaching train. I am guessing that like old Magoo, these folks really just can't see, that is cannot see the absolute peril they are putting themselves and any passengers they are transporting with them.

There are the folks that just don't think crossings with only flashing lights or cross bucks apply to them. These folks blast right across in front of us, often without even slowing to see if there is an approaching train yet alone if it is even close. I guess they figure bad things will not happen to them. Some of the people never even look. They are so focused on where they want to be that they pay absolutely no attention to me. And the strange part of paying attention is this; you are actually not charged anything for doing so.

Routinely I observed people that will look, but only look one way. I guess they figure that railroads are like some streets, one way. They pull up to the crossing slowing down or even stopping, but only look one way before proceeding. Well, I guess they're half safe, but being half safe can still leave you completely dead.

One gorgeous early autumn Saturday afternoon while I was still on the Wisconsin Central we were rolling westward through Burlington, WI. We were en route to Fond du Lac and home. There was a no whistle ordinance in effect in Burlington. We were prohibited from sounding the whistle except in an emergency. I will discuss such ordinances in a bit. Anyway, here we are rolling through town at the prescribed 20 MPH with just the bell ringing. As we approach one crossing, some teenaged looking boy out cruising with some girl decided they could not wait and drove around the gates in front of our train. As they rolled in front of us, the driver gives us the familiar "we're number one" sign.

Now being that I consider a situation like this to be an emergency, I sound the whistle. It is obvious that this Magoo is cannot see the danger they have placed themselves into, so I must warn them. The whistle is my last line of defense as it were, so I blast away on it.

"Danger Will Robinson, danger!"

Conductor Brian Kruger was able to obtain a license plate number and filled out a "near miss report." Whenever we turned in one of these reports on the WC, their Risk Management folks would run the license plate on the car to get the address. A letter would be sent to the name of the person on the registration informing them that this vehicle registered to them had been observed disregarding the warning devices at a railroad crossing at the particular location we reported along with the date and time of the occurrence. Whenever the Risk Management folks sent out a letter to the registered owner, the crew of the train involved also got a copy of the letter as well.

We were good and reported many folks. For a time, I kept a file of them and had several dozen of these letters in there. I'm only sorry that I didn't keep them. They would have been a good visual aid.

Most railroads have such forms for reporting motorists. Some roads also have a toll free number for employees to call and turn in such reports. We used to have forms in the size of cards on the IC before and then shortly after CN took over. However, I have not seen such a card in over two years. I believe I have only been on one CN locomotive that had a decal posted in the cab with a phone number to call to report a near miss. Not that it would do much good though as unlike most other railroads, we have no chart or list of all the road crossings on the districts over which we operate. Most of the crossings with automatic warning devices have a milepost number on the signal cabin. The crossings with passive devices (cross bucks only) have nothing to indicate the exact location. So turning in a form that says something like, "The road crossing about half a mile south of milepost such and such" would not be too beneficial.

Coming west on the WC one Sunday afternoon en route back to Fond du Lac I had a motorist drive around lowered crossing gates in front of my train. He then made a left turn and headed north onto the parallel US Rt. 41. As we were about even with each other, I gave him a shot of whistle. When he looked over towards me, I gave him that one finger salute. He then accelerated rapidly and was out of our range of vision rather quickly.

When we got in I found out the guy's urgency in getting way from us. He went to a phone and called the railroad to turn me in for flipping him off. Guess he figured he was going to get me fired or something. The Superintendent was waiting for me when I walked into the yard office and was somewhat upset. He told of some motorist calling and reporting my actions. I laughed and asked if this guy gave a name and phone number. He told me the guy did as the Super would call him back to make amends or have me apologize or something.

I asked the Super if this guy happened to mention the fact that just prior to my public display he had driven around lowered crossing gates directly into the path of my approaching train. He told me such an event was not mentioned. I explained to him that was why I flipped the guy off, not because I'm just a mean and nasty person. The tone of the conversation suddenly changed and I was no longer in any kind of trouble. The Super said he would call the guy and inform him that he had just given himself up for violating the law and would receive a letter in the mail reminding him to be safe at crossings.

About three and a half years ago, I observed a fifth wheel equipped pick up truck pulling a travel trailer. This guy pulled his truck and trailer directly onto the crossing in front of my rapidly approaching train. I was traveling at 60 MPH with a 125 car train. The guy looks at me approaching train and then stops dead right on the tracks, right in front of my train. The travel trailer was sitting directly in front of me and the distance between me and him was very rapidly disappearing. My Conductor is starting to scream at me to put the train into emergency. I did not follow his suggestion.

Why? There was no way in hell I was going to get stopped before hitting that trailer. I just laid on the whistle and now had the other hand on the automatic brake valve. At the last possible moment, the guy takes off clearing the route. I don't believe we missed him by more than a couple of hundred feet. Traveling at over eighty feet per second, that was not much room.

I don't know if the guy was just playing chicken or what, but if he was, I was going to win. I cannot stop and am not going to dump the air on the train for every idiot that thinks I will. Now had I dumped the air in this situation, it would have been for naught. I would've come to a stop with most of the train well past the crossing. There would be the potential for something bad to happen within my train, such as a break in two. We would've have taken a big delay for no reason. And I would've had the crossing blocked the entire time.

We get people playing chicken with the trains quite often. Sometimes in higher crime neighborhoods this game is just so they can get the train stopped. Once we are stopped and in emergency, they can then attack the train. Oh ya, the days of train robberies are not dead, they have just evolved with the times. Instead of robbing the passengers and getting the strongbox with the payroll or gold in it, they break into the cars, trailers or containers.

Probably the single most terrifying near miss event that occurred in my career occurred when I was student Engineer with the MoPac. While operating over Chicago & Western Indiana trackage in Chicago's Roseland community, a school bus with kids on board drove around the gates in front of my approaching train. We narrowly missed the bus. However, it was close enough that I was able to get the name of the bus company and the bus number as well as the license plate on the back. While I could not hear the kids screaming on that bus, I could clearly see the large white eyes and the see their mouths open as if they were yelling and screaming.

This encounter was so close that I thought I was going to hit that bus. I did put the train into emergency for this one. I don't believe I missed that bus by more than a few feet. The driver just drove away like it was no bit deal. I immediately reported this incident to the C&WI Dispatcher. From what I learned later, several motorists that witnessed this event reported it to the Chicago police.

When we got back in that evening, my Engineer and I had instructions to report to the Trainmaster before we tied up. They quizzed us on exactly what happened at that crossing and wanted very clear and concise details. After answering all the questions we were then instructed to write up a report on what happened with regards to the school bus incident. We both did and then tied up and went home

The following day I was called into the Assistant Superintendent's office. He explained that the bus company had notified the railroad of the driver involved in this incident being dismissed from his job.

Did my putting the train into emergency prevent a collision? After all these years, I still really want to think so. But in actuality, it probably didn't. Knowing what I have learned over the years, it probably made little, if any difference. I did not have a great deal of time between the moment the bus pulled into my path and the point where we just missed striking it. The entire train was not even in emergency at that moment. In fact, the engines were already over the crossing and well past what could have been the point of impact when the voice of Conductor Walter Hall came over the radio asking, "Did you do that?"

Back in the days of cabooses on trains whenever the train went into emergency, somebody on the tail end would often get onto the radio asking if you were the one that put the train into emergency. Walter's question was pretty much the pat response from the tail end whenever the air went into "the hole" while you were moving.

I actually had nightmares from that episode for several nights after the event took place. In these nightmares we indeed creamed that bus and it was a horrible and tragic event. This entire event made quite the impression on me and I have never forgotten it. I would never wish such an event on my worst enemy.

I had mentioned no whistle ordinances a bit earlier. From a personal standpoint, I hate them. While I am not crazy about having to hear that whistle blow some one hundred twelve times between Markham and Champaign (for a total of 448 actually blows of that whistle), it is a line of defense. I sound that whistle at every crossing as if it were I-80. Most of the homes near or next to the tracks were built long after the railroad appeared. I don't really care if the neighbors don't like the noise. Perhaps they should have considered the fact there is a railroad nearby before they bought.

One of the first questions asked of the Engineer after a train/motor vehicle collision is if they were blowing the whistle. Even in a no whistle zone that question gets asked. As I have mentioned, that whistle is the last line of defense. If you are like old Magoo and cannot see the signals operating, you know those flashing lights, are unable to restrain yourself from driving around those lowered gate cross arms because you feel they do not really mean there might be a train approaching, perhaps the nearly 100 decibels of whistle sounding might bring you to a reality check. Yes, I have witnessed motorists that were in the process of disregarding the warning devices actually stop when I sounded that whistle.

The laws regarding whistle use in most communities usually state something to the effect of "Except in case of extreme emergency, the whistle shall not be sounded." Now none of these laws defines exactly what an extreme emergency actually might be. This makes it a judgment call on my part. I have to decide in a split second what is or isn't an extreme emergency.

I have developed my own personal criteria and formula for determining a potential extreme emergency. The formula works like this; if you disregard the warning devices (normally gates in a no whistle zone) when I am a quarter mile (the normal location where you begin to sound the whistle) or less from the crossing and my train is moving with no intention of stopping before reaching such crossing, this has developed into an extreme emergency. You have done a Magoo and thus risked the lives of yourself, any passengers that might be in your car with you and the crew on my train. Therefore, I will sound the whistle. I am of the mind set that you are totally unaware of and oblivious to the approach of my train. A collision might be imminent. I must take every action within my powers to make you aware of the potential for serious injury or death that you are exposing yourself to. You obviously have no clue as to the danger you are placing all parties involved into, therefore, you need to be warned. And that whistle is the only method I have to warn you. So I will and do, blast away.

I had an interesting debate on a discussion list with somebody that was annoyed by the whistles sounded at the crossings in his community. He lives near a very busy rail line that routinely sees in excess of 80 train moves per day. He complained that the railroad should be doing more. What is it the railroad should be doing? He thought they should install the quadrant style gates at every crossing to totally eliminate the chance of motorists disregarding their intention and driving around them. Why should the railroads pay for them?

One fact that most of the citizenry of this country fails to realize is this; gates at a crossing are not an improvement to the railroad. I repeat they are not an improvement to the railroad. They are an improvement to the highway in exactly the same manner as a traffic light at an intersection is an improvement to the highway. I may still proceed at my normal track speed at a crossing whether there are gates or just cross bucks. Gates do not allow me to operate at a higher speed limit just as the lack of them does not require me to operate at a lower rate of speed.

And even with the quadrant style of gates at the crossing, they still do not prevent collisions from occurring. More than half of all train/motor vehicle collisions occur at crossings equipped with gates.

The money used for the installation of gates at a crossing comes from state and Federal funds. The government pays for the project and in most cases; the railroads provide the manpower for the installation. Now another fact that most folks are not aware of; the railroads assume all costs of repairs and maintenance to such installations. So if some bean head plows into the gate breaking it off, the railroad is required to absorb all costs involved to make repairs. That is of course, unless somebody can catch the license plate number of the offending vehicle.

I have caught the license plate number of more than one motorist that knocked off a gate at a crossing. The railroad will go after said motorist in the attempt to recover the cost of all the damages, including the money paid out to the Signal Maintainer that is required to make the repairs.

Another issue that develops from damaged gates or signals at a crossing; stopping a train to protect that crossing. When an automatic crossing warning device is reported to have been damaged or not properly functioning, we are notified and must stop and protect that crossing. This requires us to stop the train short of said crossing and have a member of the crew get off and head to the crossing. This employee must place lighted fusees on the crossing and flag all motor vehicular and pedestrian traffic to a stop. Only then may I proceed onto the crossing. Once the crossing is fully occupied and the crew member is back on board, I may resume normal speed. But getting the train back up to speed takes time which results in the crossing being blocked even longer.

In most cases, the communities have built themselves up around the railroads. In this day and age many new developments are planned and constructed immediately adjacent to or in very close proximity of a rail line. I know of several cases where the developers involved petitioned to get a crossing added to allow the residents of the new developments an alternate method of entering and exiting the development. The railroads tend to fight off such plans, often very successfully.

Now should there be commuter passenger service operating on the rail line near the new development, that fact is touted to prospective homeowners. So these folks move out to the so-called "country" to get away from urban sprawl, and place themselves either right next to or within close proximity of the busy rail line. The trains come through at all hours whistling the crossings and suddenly, we are the enemy. Never mind these folks chose to live where they do.

So the outcry begins and efforts are undertaken to stop all that noise. They cry to the town hall, councilmen and women and anybody else who will listen. They organize petition drives to stop the whistling. Oddly enough though, many that are clamoring about the noise somehow fail to notice the racket that comes from their own kids' car stereos cranked up at full volume with the mega-hyper bass kicked in. Windows shake for blocks around yet for some strange reason, being that these are their own kids, they fail to recognize this as a problem.

Instead of the communities involved whining at the railroads, why don't they focus their efforts at the developers? Why not require the developers to pay for improved warning devices at the crossings BEFORE the first house is allowed to be occupied? The developers are reaping humongous profits for creating and building these developments, why not make them pay for the cost of the improvements at any railroad crossings in that community? And why don't community leaders take a stand and require as much? Why? It's simple; money. The community leaders see an increased tax base. They visualize the businesses of their communities prospering because of an increased market base. They envision growth. They see more voters. They don't want to risk any interference to this growth and development by standing up for what is right and making the developers pay for all associated improvements related to the new developments. Instead, they bitch and moan at the railroads for doing what is required, protecting the public from themselves. Many of whom are the likes of Mr. Magoo.

And so it goes.

Tuch