Police Work With Railroad To Raise Awareness About Train Dangers
FORT COLLINS, Colo. (CBS4) - Police boarded a train on Tuesday looking for people being dangerous around trains. It came after a Colorado State University student lost her legs when she and three young men tried to catch a ride on a train in Longmont last month.
Many people don't know it's trespassing to be on the train, on the tracks, or even in the railroad right of way, and police can issue a ticket. Officers worked with the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad to raise awareness about trying to beat trains at intersections, trespass, and train hopping, which can have tragic consequences.
Locomotive engineer Craig Peters demonstrated to CBS4's Mike Hooker how somebody could fall under a train.
"Sometimes you might get up here and it'll swing you around … it's faster than you think … and it will throw you right in between here," Peters said.
Peters pointed into the wheels -- instant amputation or death. And the metal ladder is much higher than most people think.
Just last month at a crossing in Longmont CSU student Anna Beninati tried to hop on a slow-moving train, fell, and lost both her legs. Beninati and her friends were hoping to ride the train home to Fort Collins.
With trains, the danger is deceptive, even at 10 miles per hour through town.
"They don't account for the time it's going to take and they trip, or when they trip or they fall on the railroad tracks and they can't get up," Drew Jurkofsky with Fort Collins Police Services said.
Several police officers in Fort Collins spent part of Tuesday in the locomotive radioing to officers on the ground when they see a violator crossing after the gates start to move, or after the horn blows.
"Once that sound is audible and the train is right there you need to stop and wait for it," Jurkofsky said.
For cars, failure to stop at a railroad crossing is a four point ticket. For pedestrians, especially for people trying to actually trying to hop on the train, the cost of stumbling over the tracks or tangling with the train can be terrible.
