POLICE, OTHERS OBSERVE FIRSTHAND DANGERS OF REGION'S RAIL CROSSINGS

SCOTT CITY -- It took the deaths of three friends to make Jim Johnson realize the need for railroad safety.

Almost 20 years ago, Johnson saw three friends die in a train-crossing accident along a rural road in Illinois. And he's been involved in train safety programs ever since.

Johnson now promotes Operation Lifesaver for the Southern Pacific Lines.

Local policemen, city officials and school principals participated in the Trooper on the Train program Wednesday. About 16 people rode an Operation Lifesaver train to Malden. The ride was designed to educate the participants about railroad-crossing safety.

"It only takes one vehicle, one train and one crossing to have one collision with any number of casualties," Johnson said.

The policemen were able to see what railroad engineers see every day: people who break the law by challenging a train for right of way at a crossing.

Despite the posted signs and whistles, the driver of a pickup started to challenge the train at a crossing near Bell City Wednesday morning. After realizing the train was moving quickly, the driver decided to wait for the train to pass.

It is a violation of Missouri law to challenge a train for right of way at a railroad crossing. The law dictates that vehicles must stop within 50 but not less than 15 feet of a railroad crossing.

"If he hadn't reversed, we would have hit him," said engineer Pete Wadlington, who drives trains for Southern Pacific Lines and coordinates the Operation Lifesaver safety campaign in Southeast Missouri, Arkansas and Illinois.

Fines for violating the law vary and are set by a judge, said Missouri Highway Patrol Sgt. Brent Davis.

Stopping trains is more difficult than motorists stopping vehicles at rail crossings.

"It's not like a train can swerve," said Dennis Ziesmer, a Southern Pacific Railroad policeman. "You can't judge how fast they are going because they're so big."

Most freight trains travel between 50 and 60 mph, depending on the weather, terrain and number of cars.

Traveling at 50 mph, the 68-mile trip from Scott City to Malden took about four hours on the three-car Operation Lifesaver train.

The train usually runs in areas where there are more vehicle-train accidents, Wadlington said.

In 1994, 118 highway-rail accidents were reported in Missouri. Stoddard County leads the Southeast Missouri area in train-vehicle accidents. There are 70 crossings in the county, 30 of which have flashing signals.

Three accidents and one death were reported in Stoddard County last year, according to the Missouri Division of Transportation.

Scott County reported one death and two accidents during 1994. An Oran man was killed in May at an unmarked railroad crossing. There are 62 rail crossings in Scott County.

In his 23 years with the Cape Girardeau Police Department, Don Hellwege has only seen one train-vehicle accident. A Lone Star vehicle was hit when it crossed tracks south of town, he said.

Operation Lifesaver is an education program designed to reduce and prevent crashes and injuries at the nation's 300,000 highway-rail grade crossings. It began in Idaho in 1972 and was started in Missouri five years later.