Faulty Rail Road Crossing Arms Worry DART Passengers
GARLAND (CBSDFW.COM) - A frustrated DART rider posted video on Twitter of a freight train passing near the Garland DART station downtown with the rail road crossing arms pointed toward the sky and not blocking the road intersection.
"It's not uncommon for these arms to have problems," the video maker says tersely.
Kyle Walls, who works near the intersection confirmed the video's assertion, "Several times in the morning I've had to pass them and go down to the next one. They were stuck down."
"I've seen it stuck up, I've seen it stuck down," said Brittany Edwards who lives and works near the intersection. "There have been a lot of people working on it."
"This is a problem," the man on the Twitter video yelled. "A major problem!"
The man who took his frustration to Twitter with today's crossing guard failure is Clay Bransom.
"I live in this area," Bransom told CBS 11's Joel Thomas. "I live right there and what I'm bothered at is somebody is going to get killed one day.
"Arms aren't coming down -- boom! Car vs train, train always wins," he said.
There are three tracks at the site. Two for DART light rail and one for freight. DART tells me they've reviewed this video and they're sure their lines aren't the problem.
In fact Dart tweeted to Bransom:
"Area is considered a shared corridor. Gates are out of service to freight traffic and they are aware. Light rail gates are active."
While on the scene, CBS 11's crew observed many DART trains passing through the intersection and the crossing functioned as it should. A freight train engine passed and the arms stayed up and a railroad worker walked ahead of it to stop traffic.
DART referred complaints to Dallas, Garland and Northeastern railroad. A person at DGNO who only identified himself as John told us they haven't received a complaint about the intersection today so it must be a DART problem. People who live near the intersection say they've had that run around before and aren't sure who to hold accountable.
"I don't know, I would just like them to be fixed completely to where we don't have that problem," Bransom said.
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