Thursday, February 25, 1999
80-plus railroad track crossers cited
Hamilton police do 5-hour sweep as accidents rise
BY DAVID ECK
Enquirer Contributor
HAMILTON — After watching the number of pedestrian-train accidents in Butler County skyrocket last year, police on Wednesday cracked down.
During a five-hour sweep of Hamilton, they handed out more than 80 citations to people for walking on railroad tracks, or for driving across tracks against warning lights.
Of the 54 deaths and injuries among railroad trespassers statewide in 1998, eight occurred in Butler County and six in Hamilton County. There was only one such ac cident in each county in 1997, said David LeCompte, special agent for the Norfolk Southern Corp.
“We're trying to educate,” said Hamilton Police Officer Dave Crawford. “It is a crime to trespass on private property, which is railroad property.”
Wednesday's crackdown focused on areas in Hamilton where people frequently trespass on railroad tracks. Several people were cited for being on tracks behind the Hamilton Crossings retail plaza on Ohio 4.
Officers spent more than a week announcing the crackdown, including canvassing businesses in Hamilton and putting up fliers announcing the sweep.
Several people who were cited said they were aware of the police operation but for got about it. One woman said she had seen a noon television news report on the sweep just minutes before being cited.
Some of the trespassing may be due to habit, police said.
“I don't think people are aware of how dangerous it is to trespass on railroad property,” Mr. LeCompte said. “This is a very active area because of the large number of railroad tracks that run through it. This is going to be an ongoing enforcement effort.”
When accidents occur, it's not just the victims and their families who suffer. For train crews, the emotional impact of being involved in a fatality can be so severe that employees sometimes can never again get on a train, Mr. LeCompte said.
“We see these close collisions every day out on the railroad,” said Norfolk Southern engineer Richard Vickrey. “The train crews go through a lot of mental anguish when we have these fatalities.”
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