18 Citations Issued for Ignoring Railroad Crossing Arms

LIBERTY, September 1, 2010 - Almost two weeks ago the City of Liberty Police Department at the request of Officer Cliff Mayton of the Union Pacific Railroad Police participated in an afternoon operation to reduce the number of near miss incidents involving trains and vehicles who cross the tracks at intersections when the crossing arms are in the down position.

The reason for the operation is to prevent accidents involving trains and automobiles which are potentially very dangerous. Railroad cars transport many hazardous and dangerous products that if spilled because of a derailment accident could potentially force an evacuation of the entire city.

Also accidents that close the tracks to train traffic severely interrupt the free flow of commerce that necessitates the re-routing of train traffic and cripples train schedule and deliveries.

According to Officer Hugh Bishop of the City of Liberty Police Department during the operation a train locomotive traveled back and forth through Liberty from Louisiana Street to the Bypass for a period of about four hours on a Thursday afternoon.

As vehicles ignored the crossing arms and traveled through them while they were down, seven City of Liberty Police Officers and one DPS Trooper were observing traffic and issued at total of 18 citations to driver’s who ignored the crossing arms.

Please don’t ignore railroad crossing arms. A train is nothing to mess with!