BNSF RR failed to install RR crossing lights, now says crash victims cannot sue

“ Railroad knew crossing was dangerous and failed to fix it, Missouri farmer says. … Another local farmer, Daryl Jacobs, who has lived in the area his whole life, called the crossing “very dangerous.” “It needs arms on it or signals,” Jacobs, 62, said. “It’s so dang steep. I heard that truck just stalled out today going up it. That’s what I heard. “And this dang brush along these railroad tracks all needs to be cleared back.” …

Nearly half of public train crossings in Missouri are not equipped with active warning devices such as bells, flashing lights and gates, according to a MoDOT report. “Only the crossings with extreme amounts of train and vehicle traffic or other sight distance problems will receive lights/gates because the need is great,” the agency wrote on its website. MoDOT did not provide comment after being contacted by The Star. Spencer said the rise from where the road is flat to the top of the tracks is about 9 feet. “Our concern was that the approach on it is very, very steep,” he said.

“You can’t see over it. We have to cross over it with farm equipment, loaded grain trucks. We have no choice but to cross that track. It’s very treacherous.” He estimates trains come through at up to 90 miles per hour. There are no signals. No cross arms to stop motorists. They want the grade to the top of the track lessened. “There’s no way you can pull up there and stop and go on.” The video Spencer posted earlier this month shows a train “only moving at approximately 45-50 but some come through at anywhere from 70-90 mph,” he wrote. “If you cross here with a vehicle, stop, approach very slowly, then look both ways.”

“Around 85 trains go through there every day.” (Note: assuming a 16-hour working day, that’s around 1 train ever 12 minutes!)

His wife Sheryl commented soon after he posted the video. “They are waiting till someone gets hit,” she wrote.”

https://www.kansascity.com/news/state/missouri/article262950...

Meanwhile, the railroad, which killed 3 people through negligence and is now suing the victims, is also suing to try pin the blame on the truck driver (whom the train killed) for getting himself hit, despite the RR’s years of refusing to fix the many deadly safety issues at the brush-overrun, 9-foot-elevated crossing.

“ The civil petition comes nearly three months after BNSF Railway opened another civil case, filed jointly with Amtrak in federal court, in which the company blames Billy Barton II, a truck driver for M.S. Contracting, for causing the crash.”