Any time is train time at crossings

SANDPOINT — Freight train crews can do little but yank an emergency brake and pray when they cross paths with somebody in a railroad crossing.

Trains can’t swerve out of the way or stop on a dime if a motorist is in their path. It takes a mile to halt a 6,000-ton freight train traveling at 55 mph, said Ray Harper, a BNSF Railway safety support manager.

“There’s nothing they can do to prevent it,” Harper said of a collision.

The math is grim in such scenarios, he added.

The weight ratio between trains and vehicles is 4,000-to-1, which means a car or truck is about as resilient as a 12-ounce aluminum soda can in a train collision.

Bonner County EMS hosted a well-attended presentation by Harper on Thursday to highlight railroad crossing safety in the wake of two deadly last year.

There are 132 railroad crossings in Bonner County, roughly half of which are public and half are private. There have been 63 train collisions in the county since 1993.

The number of collisions in the county hovered around the half-dozen mark in the 1990s, but dipped to just one or two a year in the 2000s.

“It’s been on a downward climb,” said Harper.

Last year, however, the number of collisions ascended to five, which includes the death of 19-year-old Kayle Porter on Elmira Road and the death of Kaitlin Marie Brosh, 25, at Heath Lake Road in Sagle.

Such tragedies tend to generate calls for flashing lights and crossing arms at unguarded at-grade crossings.

But Harper noted that approximately half of train collisions nationwide occur at crossings with automatic safeguards in place, often because motorists disregard them.

Moreover, such safety enhancements are expensive — up to $250,000 per crossing — and the cost burden falls on taxpayers, not railroads.

As a result, public safety officials rely heavily upon education and awareness programs such as Operation Lifesaver, which is credited with causing an 83-percent decline in collisions since its introduction in Idaho in 1972.

Bonner County Sheriff’s Det. Kurt Lehman, a certified Operation Lifesaver presenter, said the public awareness campaign is taken to schools, civic groups or anybody else who is interested.

Enforcement targeting crossing arm dodgers is another way of improving safety.

Ponderay Police Chief Mike Hutter said there have a number of close calls at guarded crossings on Kootenai Cutoff Road and Eastgate Drive involving impatient motorists who try to slip past downed crossing arms.

Lehman said funding for crossing safety enforcement is somewhat scarce. The Idaho Transportation Department released $50,000 in grant funding for enforcing high-risk crossings statewide.

“It’s not a whole lot of money, but it’s a start,” said Lehman.

Harper said deadly train collisions affect wide swaths of communities large and small, including train crews.

The main thing about this: It doesn’t have to happen,” said Harper.