SAFETY OF RAILROAD CROSSINGS

Statistics on vehicle-train accidents in Missouri and Illinois show an alarming number of motorists involved in such accidents last year didn't stop at railroad grade crossings. Even more disturbing is the fact that almost 10 percent of those involved in the 103 vehicle-train accidents in Missouri in 1995 actually drove past crossing gates trying to beat oncoming trains.

Such behavior obviously can be deadly, and it was for at least three of the 21 people who were killed at rail crossings in Missouri last year. In all of the other accidents, motorists didn't stop and look for oncoming trains at crossings or looked and didn't see them approaching. Complacency, undoubtedly, contributed to some of the accidents.

Railroad and state safety officials have tried for years to impress upon motorists the dangers that lurk at railroad crossings. And the lesson is very clear: Your chances of survival when a vehicle is struck by a train are slim; in fact, you are 30 times more likely to be killed than in a vehicle involved in a collision with another vehicle.

New laws provide for fines and jail time in Missouri and fines or community service work in Illinois for trying to beat trains at crossings. Yet you can be sure that, just like speeders or other traffic-law violators, there will be those who think they are beyond being caught and will try to outrun oncoming trains.

In their cases, the fines would be minuscule compared to the alternative of not getting caught and continuing to cross tracks with trains approaching. Sooner or later the train is likely to win.