The Marietta Daily Journal – High costs hampering Georgia rail safety efforts

ATLANTA — Cost is one of the many issues preventing gate and bell systems from being installed at Georgia’s roughly 5,000 public rail crossings, state and local officials say.

Georgia recorded 47 highway rail crossing deaths or injuries last year — which is up from 34 in 2011 and 40 in 2010, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported Sunday. There are more than 3,300 rail crossings in Georgia that have no gates or bells to warn approaching drivers, state officials say.

“You can be on the tracks before you know it in the dark of night,” Stephens County Sheriff Randy Shirley told the newspaper. He was referring to a rail crossing in Toccoa, where three visitors from Cobb County were killed when their car was broadsided by a train in early May. “A gate would certainly make all the difference in the world there,” he said.

Rail crossings without gates are required to have crossbucks signs and local jurisdictions can also add additional signage at their discretion.

via The Marietta Daily Journal – High costs hampering Georgia rail safety efforts.