ORAN RAILROAD CROSSING TO GET LIGHTS

ORAN -- Thanks to the prodding of the McGranahan family, warning lights and guards will be built at the Shelby Street railroad crossing in Oran, where Sylvia McGranahan was killed five weeks ago.

McGranahan, 52, and her friend Wanda Johns, 61, died instantly March 8, when their car was struck by a Burlington Northern train at the crossing. Four other people had died there previously.

Witnesses said the car driven by Johns stopped at the stop sign before the tracks and then went onto the tracks, where it was hit by the train traveling at 55 mph.

The McGranahans were told after an on-sight inspection this week by state, city and railroad officials that warning lights and guards would be placed at the crossing within 12 to 15 months.

"I'm glad it's happening," said Susan McGranahan's daughter Elaine, "but it's unfortunate that it took two more people's lives to get it done."

Elaine McGranahan has been calling legislators and organizations at the state and federal levels since her mother's death. "I called anyone who I thought could help," she said.

Her calls to state lawmakers paid off.

Her district representative, Marilyn Williams, D-Dudley, was able to contact the state agency that funds railroad crossing warning systems -- the Missouri Highways and Transportation Department -- and get a commitment to warning lights and guards.

"I haven't seen anything in writing yet," Williams said, "but the money is there and it's been earmarked."

Williams said the department and railroad must have engineering studies, develop plans and list other specifics before proceeding with construction of the warning system. She said such projects usually take between 12 and 15 months from conception to completion.

As a result of the latest fatalities, Oran school buses were directed to use only one Oran railroad crossing: the one with warning lights, a school official said. The crossing where the two women were killed and another crossing without warning lights are off limits to school buses.

Since the accident, railroad engineers are taking extra precautions through Oran.

"They've been blowing the whistle sooner and holding it all the way through town now," McGranahan said of the engineers.

Her home is only three blocks from the tracks. "It's kind of eerie now, isn't it?" she told a reporter as a train passed through town.

On May 5, 1994, William C. Coomer, 71, was killed when he pulled into the path of an oncoming train. In 1982, a pedestrian who was deaf was killed at the crossing. The other two fatalities were a couple killed in 1957, when officials believe their car stalled on the tracks and was struck by an oncoming train.