Original Article Police ticketing violators of railroad-crossing laws Many accidents can be avoided Katie Nelson The Arizona Republic Apr. 8, 2005 12:00 AM TEMPE - A 10,000-ton bulk of steel can come bearing down fast. Inevitably, by the time a conductor can stop it's already too late. It takes miles to stop a moving train. Yet time after time train collisions kill people, like the four who died in Maricopa County last year. But most of the accidents are avoidable, experts say. On Thursday, East Valley police conducted a regional crackdown on drivers who disobey railroad-crossing laws. Officers rode back and forth between Queen Creek and Tempe aboard a short passenger train. Spotters watched for lawbreakers from the engine, and officers on motorcycles nabbed them from the streets. In all, they issued 18 tickets and witnessed several close calls. During one, a PT Cruiser in Gilbert was forced to back into the warning signal arm because it was on the tracks when the train came by. The car missed a collision by only inches. Every Union Pacific Railroad engineer aboard the "Operation Lifesaver" train had war stories about terrible wrecks they've been in or seen. They've witnessed trains wiping out school buses, entire families and, worse yet, half of a family while the other half sees it happen in the rearview mirror. From inside the train, the physical impact of a vehicle versus train crash feels like a car driving over a Coke can, the engineers said. But the emotional impact is much more jolting. "The last thing we see is these people with a deer-in-the-headlights look," engineer Tom Fooshee said. "That's the vision that's going to be burned into the engineer's memory forever." Drawing from more than 30 years of experience, Fooshee thinks impatience is the cause of many train-involved accidents. Hurried drivers maneuver around signal arms to beat trains. Sometimes they make it. Sometimes not. Ignorance also plays a role, Fooshee said. People don't realize it takes at least 14 seconds before a train's brakes start to work, and an additional 20 seconds before a train will start to stop. "People get in such a hurry," agreed Greg Wallen, who also works for Union Pacific. "They get in their car and think since they are there, nothing can happen to them. They forget all about awareness."