SAFER RAILROAD CROSSING IN ORAN

The railroads, law enforcement agencies and state transportation departments have long realized the importance of traffic signals and other safety devices at railroad crossings, yet today many rural crossings remain unprotected.

That no longer is the case at the Shelby Street crossing in Oran, where six people have lost their lives in train-vehicle accidents over the past four decades.

After the most recent fatalities occurred at the crossing in March 1996, a group of people that included the son of one of the women who was killed has campaigned for improvements. The town since has upgraded the crossing, making it wider, improving visibility and paving the street. Signals and gates have been installed.

The improvements aren't a guarantee against more train-vehicle accidents, but if people will obey the signals, it is. The best guarantee against accidents at crossings with or without signals is to stop, look both ways and listen before proceeding, and being doubly sure trains aren't coming at crossings of more than one railroad track.