Safer railroad crossing is grieving mom’s goal
Posted on Saturday, November 24, 2007
SEDGWICK — Each time a train rumbles down the Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad tracks in Sedgwick, Vanessa Gray’s heart aches.
More than 30 trains pass through the Lawrence County town each day, and Gray, who lives less than a block from the tracks, hears her share of them. The clatter of the freight cars and the blast of the safety horn shatter the peace in the quiet town of 112 people, and it sends Gray into another round of mourning.
The daily occurrence takes her back to that sunny April afternoon when she heard the train that killed her daughter Briana Arford, 24, as she was driving across the tracks at an unmarked crossing in Sedgwick.
Now, eight months later, Gray is turning a mother’s grief into action. Gray has called politicians, city leaders and the railroad company and held rallies at the crossing in an attempt to get safety devices installed. Currently, there are no lights or gates at Crossing No. 668056 S on Smith Avenue.
Gray wants to at least have stop signs installed, but local farmers have complained. It would be too difficult, they say, to stop heavy machinery and then try to climb the steep grade to cross the tracks. After crossing the tracks, Smith Avenue heads north through a residential area and then out of the city limits to farmland.
“I am scared to death of that crossing,” Gray said. “I have two more kids who are driving now. I won’t let them cross [on Smith Avenue ] any more.” Instead, Gray’s family turns off Smith Avenue before crossing the tracks and heads down Front Street for a quarter of a mile before turning back onto Arkansas 228. A railroad crossing there features lights, warning bells and crossing gates. “I lost my daughter,” Gray said. “But I still have a purpose. I can hold on to her a bit longer this way.” THE ACCIDENT Gray told her daughter that she’d have dinner ready by the time Arford returned to her mother’s home shortly before 5 p.m. April 1. It was the last time she saw her daughter. Arford, an English teacher at Newport High School, used to take her 2-year-old son, Austin, for weekend visits with her mother. She planned to run an errand that day. No one thought anything of it as she left with her stepfather, James Gray. James was driving his car and led the way down Smith Avenue toward the crossing. Arford followed in her four-door Hyundai Elantra. At 5: 05 p. m., James crossed the tracks and saw the train, Burlington Northern Santa Fe M-TULMEM 1-31 A — a fiveengine, 110-car train — almost upon him.
“I didn’t hear any horns,” he said later. “I didn’t know it was coming.” From the south, the crossing is flat and motorists can see trains for quite a distance. But the northern approach has much less visibility. A building and trees impede the view of the tracks from the west, and motorists cannot see if the tracks are clear until they nearly drive up on them.
James looked in his rearview mirror and saw his stepdaughter following. “I yelled at her to stop, but, of course, she didn’t hear me. I saw the train hit her and then she disappeared.” The lead engine, No. 4565, struck the passenger side of the car, crumpling it and hurtling it 159 feet down the tracks. The car came to rest on a second set of tracks. A conductor’s report indicates that the train was traveling 53 mph. James Gray saw his stepdaughter trapped in the wreckage of her car. A coroner told him she probably died instantly. “I see that happen every day,” he said. “I keep replaying it over and over.” FRUSTRATING CAMPAIGN On April 16, a representative from Burlington Northern Santa Fe offered the Sedgwick City Council $ 50, 000 to close the Smith Avenue crossing. It’s a routine gesture, said Joe Faust, a spokesman for the train company. The city would use the money to develop another, safer crossing if possible, he said. The city didn’t take the money, in part because some residents want to keep the crossing open.
Tish Warlow, a Sedgwick alderman, said she received complaints from farmers. “It would be an inconvenience for them,” she said.
Vanessa Gray attended that council meeting and asked that stop signs be installed at the crossing until gates or lights could be put up. The council tabled the discussion.
On Monday, she asked again if the council could put stop signs there. Again, the council tabled the discussion. Mayor Stanley DeBow didn’t attend the meeting, and council members wanted to talk to him before committing.
DeBow couldn’t be reached for comment.
“It’s been frustrating,” Vanessa Gray said. “It’s been a battle. I keep praying no one else gets hurt or killed at that crossing while we wait.” Lawrence County Judge Alex Latham said he’d close the crossing if he could. But, even though Smith Avenue doubles as a county road, Latham has no jurisdiction inside the city limits.
“We wish they’d close the crossing,” Faust said. “People would just have to adapt to crossing the tracks at another crossing.” Of the two rallies Vanessa Gray has held at the crossing, the most recent was a candlelight vigil on Nov. 2, which would have been her daughter’s birthday.
“We’re trying to get people involved,” she said. “We’re just people. We can’t fight a big train company.” The city is supposed to request a survey of the crossing conducted by the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department, agency spokesman David Nilles said. Department workers will count the number of vehicles that use the crossing and the number of trains that pass through daily and inspect the crossing grade for safety.
A crossing gate with lights costs about $ 250, 000 and can be paid for with funds provided by the Federal Railroad Administration.
Vanessa Gray has been told it may take three years before a gate or safety device is installed. Faust said it could take only months if certain criteria are met in the survey.
After Monday’s council meeting, Gray and her husband returned home. They sat at their kitchen table, looking at a scrapbook of their daughter that they compiled for Austin to read once he gets older. A compact disc of Arford singing played in a computer in another room.
Within two hours, four trains rolled through the crossing, their horns cutting through the cool evening.
“When I hear that horn, it gets to me,” Vanessa Gray said. “Trying to get the crossing [safe ] is what I can do to honor my daughter. If I didn’t do this, I’d go crazy.”
FEEDBACK:
Something to say about this topic? Submit a Letter to the Editor online
