![]() His 73-year-old wife was an elementary school principal.Īlso killed were Clinton Havran, 79, of Sealy, Texas, and 62-year-old Deborah Orr. Ken Hoffman, 82, worked for the district for decades and was an assistant superintendent. ![]() ![]() Killed Tuesday were Ken and Peggy Hoffman, two former administrators with the Lockhart school district south of Austin. “But we still keep having rail crossing collisions.” “Almost every accident like this could be avoided,” said David Clarke, director of the Center for Transportation Research at the University of Tennessee. The driver bailed out and ran down the road to warn the engineer of an approaching freight train, but the train still plowed into the stranded semi and pushed it about 70 to 80 feet before stopping, the city said. In January, a Pepsi delivery driver’s tractor-trailer became stuck at the same crossing. There was one fatality each during accidents in 19 at the crossing in question. The crossing had a sign warning drivers of a low-ground clearance, as well as a bell, lights and crossing arms. CSX said creating a more gradual slope would be up to the city. Sumwalt said the crossing is the responsibility of both the city and railroad company. She said she doesn’t know whether the area has a higher rate of wrecks per crossing than other areas. “As far as long-term improvements to this crossing and others in the city, I will continue to press for us to close crossings so that we can work with CSX to improve safety of others,” he said in a statement posted on the city’s website.ĬSX spokeswoman Laura Phelps said the Biloxi area has a large number of crossing wrecks at least partly because there are so many railroad crossings, including 18 in a span of about 3 miles. He stressed that changes need to be made. Mayor Andrew Gilich attended the NTSB news conference and said he had personally known people who had died at the crossing.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |