Local officials challenge county's rail safety ranking

MIKE TOBIAS
The Port Arthur News

PORT ARTHUR January 08, 2009 06:33 pm

— Jefferson County was rated as the seventh most dangerous county in Texas for railway safety in a report released Thursday by The Texas Rail Relocation and Improvement Association.
The report, “Dangerous Dozen: Rail Safety in Texas,” lists the 12 most dangerous counties in Texas based on the number of freight and passenger rail accidents and incidents reported from 1998 through 2007. According to the report, Texas ranks No. 1 for train-vehicle collisions and deaths at rail crossings of all 50 states.
Though the statistics include all of Jefferson County, the port city and railway mecca of Port Arthur has gone years without too many incidents involving trains and vehicles, according to Port Arthur Police Chief Mark Blanton.
“This is a ten year study, but in recent years I just don’t remember any traffic related train incidents, or cases of cars crashing into trains, to any great extent in Port Arthur,” Blanton said.
“However, we did have a train derailment involving a tanker car near Highway 347 back in October of 2007,” Blanton recalled.
“It was great incovienience — we had to re-route traffic for several days, but there were no motor vehicles involved. In fact, that’s the first train derailment we’ve had in Port Arthur in years.”
The “Dangerous Dozen” Texas Counties are, in ascending order: Bell, Fort Bend, Potter, Brazoria, Cameron, Jefferson, El Paso, Webb, Dallas, Bexar, Tarrant, and Harris.
Port Arthur was founded by railroad giant Arthur Stilwell, and today Stilwell’s Kansas City Southern Railway Company still flows through Jefferson County like a track of veins shipping the industrial life supply in and out of area ports.
“The Kansas City Southern Railway Company (KCSR) actively promotes public safety in all of the communities that it operates in and has done so successfully for many years,” KCSR spokeperson C. Doniele Kane said.
“Actually, crossing collisions involving KCSR in Jefferson County are trending down from eight in 2004 to only three in 2008. KCS continues to strive to eliminate grade crossing collisions, including working closely with TxDOT to review crossings and upgrade traffic control where TxDOT experts indicate the need to do so.”
“The reduction in collisions between 2004 and 2008 shows we are having success.”
In an area with a high volume of rail traffic, the county’s ranking in this study is not suprising, says State Representative of the 22nd District Joe Deshotel.
“I’m not suprised,” Deshotel said, “But I think a lot of it has to do with the amount of rail traffic we have, and that’s largely due to the nature of our area’s industry.”
Deshotel, who has sat on the Texas State Committee on Transportation since 2005, says area officials have done much to ensure the safety of motorists at crossings by keeping lighted systems and electronic crossing arms updated. Rural crossings that aren’t frequented by high volumes of traffic don’t warrant such safety measures and the responsibility of making sure the crossings are clear is up to the motorists.
Much of the area’s infrastructure comes through Jefferson County by area ports, which are some of the largest in the nation, says Deshotel. Combine that with I-10, one of the county’s largest traffic cooridors, and the potential for the number of incidents increases.
“More cars mean more wrecks and more train traffic means the potential for incidents is there,” Deshotel said.
“Think of it this way — an area with an airport is more likely to have incidents with aircrafts than an area that doesn’t see much air traffic at all.”
Elizabeth Christian & Associates Public Relations’ John Egan, who represents The Texas Rail Relocation and Improvement Association, said the purpose of the study was to shed light on rail safety as an issue.
“Our association is pursuing funding in the current legislation that is geared toward improving safety on the freight end and passendger rail lines throughout the states,” Egan said.
“Part of that would included addressing rail safety, for instance, at dangerous crossings or focusing on other areas that need improvement as far as safety is concerned.”
Egan also noted that the data for the study came from the Federal Railroad Administration.
The data collected from the study is vague, according to Fred Jackson, assistant to County Judge Ron Walker, because it does not underline what is causing the train/vehicular incidents — negligent driving, or poor maintenance of railroad equipment.
“Studies can always say ‘they say have ‘x’ number of wrecks,’ but there’s no way we look by each one and determine which were due to driver neglegence as opposed to malfunctioning crossing signs, bad maintenance or fault by the railroads themselves,” Jackson said.
“People take chances — there’s been plenty of news articles about people who ignore crossing warnings. The thing is, it’s easy to report the number of accidents that occur, but statistics do not give you a flavor as to why they’re occuring.”
The Port Arthur News last reported a train/vehicular wreck in January 2007, when a car driven by a 78-year-old man collided with a KCS express engine near the Twin City Highway and Boston Avenue track crossing in Nederland. This information echoes statements made by PAPD Cheif Blanton, who said if high numbers of train/vehicle incidents are occuring in Jefferson County, they are not occuring in the Southern end.
“It does seem that some of the counties on the list make sense; they are metropolitan areas, and port towns with a lot of rail traffic,” Blanton said.
“I bet there’s many years where we never had a train accident at all. It’s just not real common here.”
mtobias@panews.com

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