Danger lurks at Georgia’s ‘ungated’ rail crossings | www.myajc.com

TOCCOA — On that dark Friday night in May, a white crossing marker and a stop sign at the top of an uphill curve on Summit Ridge Road indicated a railroad crossing there. But there were no gates, no bells and no lights to signal a train’s approach.

The crossing would appear suddenly to anyone driving north. “You can’t see the tracks,” local resident Bobby Davis said.

People who live in this northeast Georgia community knew that. But three young adults visiting from Cobb County did not. Their northbound Mazda RX8 crossed the tracks on the night of May 3 at about 10 mph — and was broadsided by an Amtrak train going more than 60 mph.

Driver Areale Nunn, 22, and passengers Erich Boecklbauer, 23, and Crystal Crews, 20, all died as the locomotive slammed the little car 200 feet into a ravine, where it burned. Nunn and Boecklbauer had planned to marry, a lawyer for the families said.

Georgia has more than 5,000 public rail crossings, and more than half — about 3,360 — are “ungated,” meaning they have no drop-down bar to stop traffic, according to the state. Many are in remote, lightly traveled locations, though they can be found in metro Atlanta and on main rail lines such as the Norfolk Southern track that Amtrak plies near Toccoa.

via Danger lurks at Georgia’s ‘ungated’ rail crossings | www.myajc.com.