No-Win Situation For Trains

By VALERIE KALFRIN The Tampa Tribune

Published: Nov 22, 2006

APOPKA - Less than a mile into his Florida Central Railroad route, engineer Bill Dusenbury sees the first gambler of the day: a driver who thinks he can beat the train.

"Stop, dump truck," Dusenbury mutters, to no avail. The truck rolls past a stop sign and X-shaped "Railroad Crossing" sign as the train, lumbering along at 10 mph, bears down with cars full of limestone and scrap metal.

"People are absurd sometimes," Dusenbury says, shaking his head. "They're in a hurry. They just don't understand if they lose that gamble, they won't have to hurry anymore."

With more than 3,800 public railroad crossings in Florida - about 330 in Hillsborough County - motorists can encounter a train nearly every day. Seventeen times across Florida last year, the encounters ended in death.

Two weeks ago, a truck driver died in Tampa after an Amtrak passenger train slammed into his 18-wheeler as he waited at CSX Intermodal, a place where cargo moves between trucks and trains.

Witnesses told Tampa police the trucker pulled onto the tracks, not realizing the truck in front of him was stopping. Police and the Florida Railroad Administration said the crossing gate was working, but the trucker apparently did not see the lights or hear the bells. The investigation is continuing.

Gates, lights and the X-shaped signs called crossbucks are all meant to be treated as yield signs, but as engineers like Dusenbury know, they're often ignored. Half of all crashes occur at gated crossings, said Leslie Spurlock, who works in the Atlanta office of the Federal Railroad Administration.

Unlike a motor vehicle, a train is locked in its path. The weight and size of a locomotive, plus the number of cars it hauls, makes it impossible to stop quickly, Spurlock said.

Where trains and vehicles share the road, motorists usually control the outcome.

"If you drove over a can of soda in your car, would you notice?" Spurlock said. "That's the same relationship as a train to a car."

The Torment Of A Wreck

In just five years with the railroad, Dusenbury, 48, has had to do what all engineers dread - throw the train into emergency mode, dumping air from the brake pistons and praying the steel wheels halt in time.

It was April 17, 2005, about 4:30 p.m. in Apopka. A woman with a 15-month-old girl in her Toyota drove onto the tracks in front of the locomotive, he said.

The crossing had "flashing lights and everything," said Dusenbury, who also works as a transportation supervisor with the railroad. "She looked right at me and swore she never saw me."

The 11-car freight train was traveling about 23 miles per hour. Dusenbury said the train stopped about 450 feet after he hit the brakes. The train struck the Toyota's front passenger side, snapping the tire rod.

"I didn't know the child was in the car until I got back to the crossing after I'd stopped," Dusenbury said. "I didn't see that, or I'd have been even more worried."

Reed Kinnison, 44, has run trains on Florida Central Railroad for 19 years. He and Dusenbury said they have watched drivers snake between crossing gates ahead of the train or roll close to the tracks, as if judging the train's distance.

"They'll stop first and then they'll decide, 'Hell, I don't want to wait; I want to try to beat this train.' Then they pull out in front of you and you're throwing it into emergency and holding your breath," Kinnison said.

He once saw a man pull onto the tracks, looking in the direction opposite the approaching train. "I'm pulling on the horn. At the last second, he realized the train was coming from the other direction and gunned it. We just clipped the back end of his car."

An approaching train is an optical illusion, Kinnison said. "You can't tell when you're looking down the tracks if they're going 10 miles per hour or if it's 80 miles per hour."

People stuck on the tracks can drive to safety or abandon the car, but many panic, Kinnison said. "They see the headlight, they freak out, and they freeze."

Engineer, Safety Expert

Formed in 1986, Florida Central Railroad operates more than 65 miles of track in the Orlando area. It hauls beer, lumber and ingredients such as soy oil and corn syrup for chips and soft drinks. Monday's route took Dusenbury and Kinnison from Apopka to Plymouth, then Eustis.

The railroad uses a noncontrolled track, meaning crew members communicate with each other directly, not through a dispatcher. The track's speed limit is 25 mph.

Even at such low speeds, safety is paramount. To be certified as an engineer, Dusenbury logged 80 hours "on the seat." Driving a train that travels 40 mph requires 240 student hours, he said.

The tracks are inspected once a week and the brakes are checked before each trip. Dusenbury blows the horn in four bursts before approaching a crossing.

Along seven miles between Apopka and Plymouth, Dusenbury rolled through 17 crossings at about 10 mph. At two of the crossings, a crew member stood by, watching for traffic, while Dusenbury maneuvered forward or backward.

The engineer has side mirrors but can't see behind the train, so a conductor must radio the estimated distance between the train's rear and a stopping point.

At three of the 17 crossings, drivers - including the one at the wheel of the dump truck - ignored warnings and tried to beat the train. Once, a small bus stopped at a crossing with flashing lights as a blue pickup scooted across.

"I'm glad the bus stopped," Dusenbury said. "He even had the handicapped sticker on the back."

Three crossings later, a sport utility vehicle stopped on the tracks, ignoring the flashing lights. "Back up, car," Dusenbury said.

As if hearing the warning, the driver gunned the engine and took off, out of harm's way.

Motorists' Responsibility

Many collisions occur because drivers are not paying attention, sometimes because of a cell phone or other distraction, said Spurlock, who works as assistant grade-crossing manager with the Federal Railroad Administration

Other people take the tracks for granted, thinking, "There's never been a train there before. Why should there be one now?"

Many times, a traffic backup can strand a vehicle on the tracks as a train approaches, Spurlock said.

Any motorist stuck on a track should get out first, she said, then call 911, even if no train is in sight.

With enough lead time, 911 operators can communicate with train operators to slow or stop a train on its way. It helps if motorists identify the crossing by its unique U.S. Department of Transportation number, posted on one of the crossing's signs or nearby.

Never rely on the train to stop in time, Spurlock said. The average freight train moving at 55 mph takes about a mile to stop.

When engineers throw a train into emergency mode, "your heart goes through your throat," Dusenbury said. "Then you pray a lot."

The thought of doing that again puts him in the habit of talking to himself along the route as if the motorists can hear.

"You're scared they're going to go and you can't stop," he said.

Researcher Catherine Hammer contributed to this report. Reporter Valerie Kalfrin can be reached at (813) 259-7800 or vkalfrin@tampatrib.com.