A Duval County school bus recently collided with a CSX freight train in the Westside area of Jacksonville, Florida. According to local news coverage, the bus was stopped partially over the train tracks when the backside got hit by a moving train. One of the three adults on the school bus was injured and taken to the hospital with a laceration on her head, according to Catherine Perrault, a Naval Hospital physician who jumped in to help after witnessing the incident. Perrault added that “the entire back of the bus completely caved in” because of the accident. Neither of the two individuals on the train were injured and there were no children on the bus at the time.
The bus driver reported that the crossing gates had slammed down onto the back of the bus before the collision occurred, and that he was stopped on the tracks when that happened.
A CSX spokesperson responded by saying that the crossing gates were designed to snap off easily and that them coming down should not have prevented the bus from moving off the tracks. Although the incident ended up being relatively minor, it is terrifying to imagine what may have happened if there were children on the bus, especially if they were sitting in the back row.
A similar incident happened in Sussex County, Virginia, this June when a railroad crossing gate came down without warning and trapped a driver, Karen Hamilton, on the train tracks in her truck. Hamilton reports that she looked both ways before inching onto the tracks and saw no oncoming train, but the gate abruptly crashed down while she was passing through. With the crossing arm wedged between the windshield and hood of the car, she struggled to put the car into reverse and back off the tracks while a freight train rapidly approached the intersection. Luckily, she made it out just in time before the train blew past her. Afterwards, Hamilton reflected on how serious the incident could have become, wondering “what if it was an older person, what if it was a younger person, just with his driver’s license?”.
While exactly who to blame needs to be investigated on a case-by-case basis, it should go without saying that parents should feel confident that their children will arrive to and come back from school safely each day. To ensure situations like the collision in Jacksonville do not keep happening, the train company, public school system, transportation company, and individual driver all need to guarantee that safety protocols are being taught and followed rigorously. Additionally, train companies like CSX need to guarantee that individuals are receiving adequate warnings about approaching trains and descending crossing that gives them more than enough time for them to safely move out of the way.
