Officers from several local police agencies, as well as employees from Norfolk Southern, held an awareness checkpoint Tuesday morning at the railroad crossing on Williamson Avenue where they distributed pamphlets that shared safety tips for driving over tracks.
Officers stopped cars headed into and out of Elon to pass out brochures as part of Operation Lifesaver, a nonprofit public education program “to end collisions, deaths and injuries at highway-rail grade crossings and on railroad right-of-ways.”
The following were tips included in the information:
• Look both ways. Always expect a train as you approach rail crossings.
• Don’t get stuck on tracks. Trains overhang the tracks by three feet on each side. For safety’s sake, leave 15 feet between the back of your vehicle and the nearest rail.
• If your vehicle stalls on tracks, get out immediately, even if you don’t see a train.
• Don’t be tempted to beat a train. They travel faster than they appear and a freight train moving 55 miles per hour takes a mile or more to stop.
• Watch for vehicles such as school buses that must stop at crossings.
• Report any problems that you see at a crossing to the railroad immediately.
David Mabe, a conductor for Norfolk Southern for the past eight years, was among the volunteers wearing bright neon green vests on June 22 as motorists passed him near the tracks.
“A lot of people don’t realize how dangerous it is,” said Mabe, who, over the course of his career, has been on a train four times when it has struck and killed people not paying attention to the oncoming locomotive. “It takes a long time to stop a train with all its weight.”
The “Operation Lifesaver” campaign in town took place exactly one month after the opening of an underpass that connects pedestrians with both sides of campus, a joint safety initiative funded by Elon University and the North Carolina Railroad.