Published: August 21, 2008 11:46 am            

Train vs. Vehicle

ALTAMONT — Imagine a car running over a 12-ounce can of soda.

While the car sustains no damage, the can is ... well ... not a can anymore. It’s flattened.

Now imagine a railroad locomotive pulling 100 rail cars hitting an automobile — or even a Hummer. It’s not hard to figure out what happens to the car.

The train hitting a car is exactly like a car hitting that can of soda, a Union Pacific official said Wednesday.

“People don’t understand that concept,” said Kevin Dawson, manager of operations for UP’s St. Louis service unit.

“You have 12 million pounds of steel against a 3,000-pound car,” he said.

That’s why Dawson and a pair of UP police officers were in Altamont Wednesday to help area police understand what can happen when train meets car.

Chief Kendal Balding of Altamont Police Department has several grade crossings in his jurisdiction.

“It’s a big safety issue,” he said. “We’d like to reduce accidents at train crossings. It’s been awhile since we’ve had an accident, but I want to make sure our crossings are safe.”

Illinois is one of the leading states in car-train collisions and deaths resulting from such collisions. The Federal Railway Administration recorded 151 collisions leading to 28 deaths in Illinois during 2007. Only Texas, California and Indiana were ahead in collisions, while California and Texas were ahead in fatalities.

UP senior special agent John Schumacher would like to change that sad statistic.

“We’d like to increase public awareness of grade crossing safety,” Schumacher said. “A lot of departments don’t do much enforcement because they don’t have time, but maybe we can show them how to enforce in a time-efficient manner.

“A few people getting a ticket spreads the message around better than anything.”

Effingham County Sheriff John Monnet rode in the cab of one locomotive, along with Balding and Mayor Larry Taylor.

“I wanted to get a birds-eye view of what the engineer sees,” Monnet said. “They see violations, but can’t do anything about it. It’s kind of scary.”

Schumacher said Illinois state law prohibits motorists from proceeding through a crossing once the lights are flashing, or once crossing gates are in motion. In cases without lights or gates, the train’s horn is the key, he said.

“If the train has sounded its horn, it has the right of way.”

Bill Grimes can be reached at 217-347-7151 ext. 131 or bill.grimes@effinghamdailynews.com.