Cars, trains on collision course
From Brian Todd
CNN
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Law enforcement officials are still trying to determine whether Juan Manuel Alvarez -- the man whose aborted suicide attempt is believed to have caused a fatal commuter train crash in California on Wednesday -- parked his SUV on the road crossing the train tracks, or somewhere else. Either way, experts say, there's virtually no way to prevent suicide attempts on the rails.
But this incident does force a hard look at the often deadly encroachment between America's railways and outside traffic.
"It doesn't make a whole lot of difference whether the train is moving fast or slow, because the weight of the train -- the weight and mass ratio of that train to your vehicle -- is about 4,000-to-one. And that is almost exactly the same as the weight mass ratio of your car to a soda pop can," says Gerri Hall of Operation Lifesaver, a nonprofit program dedicated to ending accidents at railway crossings.
Federal officials tell CNN that about every two hours a train in the United States strikes either a vehicle or a pedestrian.
In 2003, the last year for which complete numbers are available, there were nearly 3,000 collisions with vehicles on railway road crossings resulting in more than 300 deaths.
But officials at the Federal Railroad Administration tell CNN these collisions and fatalities have declined dramatically over the past 30 years.
More crossing signals and barriers have been installed, and those devices, and safety features on trains themselves, have become more sophisticated. Many crossings have also been closed.
Safety advocates say that's crucial.
"Almost every mile we have someone at risk. You know, we're putting the highway and the railroad traffic at odds with each other. So wherever we can close crossings, that's a great thing," says Hall.
Experts say so-called grade separation -- having the road and railroad at different elevations -- is a trend that's been developed widely in Europe, and needs to be accelerated in the United States.
As officials point out, the safest grade crossing is the one that doesn't exist.