Columbus is working with a local cable company on a plan to install a video system which will alert emergency responders about oncoming trains.
The camera feed will go directly to the Columbus/Bartholomew County E911 Center so that dispatchers can avoid dispatching first responders into the path of a train delay.
But motorists shouldn’t give up hope of having their own warning system. Columbus Mayor Jim Lienhoop said Tuesday that the city is working with Purdue Polytechnic students to develop an app or text alert system for citizens to use to avoid train delays at Bartholomew County intersections, based off the camera feed.
The camera system was to be discussed at Tuesday’s Board of Works meeting, but was taken off the agenda to allow some details to be clarified, Lienhoop said.
The cameras are being proposed as an interim measure, with the city’s Redevelopment Commission engaging the services of Security Pro’s to install motion-activated cameras along three intersections in the county that lead into Columbus. They include at County Road 950S in Jonesville, the intersection of County Road 450S and State Road 11 and at the State Road 46/State Road 11 crossing.
Installing the cameras will allow 911 dispatchers to notify first responders of the location of a moving train to help them get to accident and other emergency scenes quicker.
For more on this story, see Thursday’s Republic.
