County, townships begin looking at train safety upgrades

Four train-related fatalities in five weeks is more than enough.

With that shared conviction, the Bartholomew County commissioners and German Township trustee Chris West are vowing to do whatever is in their power to improve safety at railroad crossings in their shared jurisdictions.

In reality, neither township nor county government has the authority to order safety improvements at train crossings, which are owned and maintained by railroad companies, West said.

But commissioners chairman Larry Kleinhenz said local government can seek funding and initiate efforts, which is what both he and West say they intend to do.

“If there is anything I can do to save lives, I will,” West said.

Kleinhenz and West said they are worried that more accidents will occur with the arrival of longer, faster and heavier CSX trains in Bartholomew County during the coming months.

The first big push for improved safety at railroad crossings in the Edinburgh area came after Sharon Gobin, 74, was killed Nov. 6 of last year while crossing railroad tracks on East Main Cross Street as a train was approaching.

Edinburgh Town Manager Wade Watson said at the time that installing more warning signals, including safety gates that block traffic from crossing when a train is approaching, isn’t an option for Edinburgh because of the costs, which he estimated at $1.5 million.

However, the town of Edinburgh did join with other local units of government in seeking grants that could help pay for long-term upgrades.

After receiving such a grant, Kleinhenz said an agreement was signed last summer to provide $400,000 worth of safety improvements to a crossing along County Road 800N, where Edinburgh High School senior Jeffrey A. Morton was killed in 2005 during a car/train collision.

But then, tragedy struck twice in the Edinburgh and Taylorsville area this fall.

On Oct. 8, Joshua L. Kelso, 30, of Cloverdale and Justice M. Llewellyn, 20, of Franklin were killed when their SUV was hit by a train on County Road 900 North, west of U.S. 31.

Five weeks later, two Columbus residents — Matthew K. Newland, 18, and Carmyn M. Elkins, 17 — died Nov. 16 after their car turned into the path of an oncoming train at U.S. 31 and West County Road 550N.

Although West said these four deaths warrant action to make crossings safer, at least three other accidents involving trains at crossings have occurred over the past year, including one where a dump truck and locomotive collided.

For more, see Wednesday’s Republic.