LONGMONT — Red lights flash to alert drivers of an incoming train. The unmistakable blare of a 4,500-pound diesel train rings out.
At the last second, the driver of a silver Dodge Durango decides to drive across the railroad crossing at Sunset Street and Ken Pratt Boulevard. Longmont Police Officer Tim Lambert, who watched from inside the train on Wednesday, calls a nearby patrol officer and reports the violation.
Seconds later, the patrol officer flips on his cruiser’s siren and stops the SUV’s driver for disregarding the railroad sign.
Lambert and the patrol officer were part of a nationwide campaign called Operation Lifesaver, aimed at reducing behaviors that can lead to death or injury on railways and at grade crossings.
On Wednesday, traffic officers rode a BNSF Railways train to see for themselves what railroad employees deal with every day.
Officers who rode the trains observed violations and radioed to traffic officers waiting along the tracks, who could stop trespassers or drivers.
“Our main focus is education and making people safe,” Sgt. Mike Bell said.
Some violators, he said, received warnings, but many of the offenders — like the Durango driver who crossed in front of an oncoming train — got tickets.
Bell said officers issued 16 tickets and eight to 10 warnings during the daylong operation.
Charlie Wiseman, a train crew supervisor for BNSF, said he hopes the day’s activities will help educate people. He sees a car roll past an oncoming train or a person walking or standing on the tracks almost every day, he said.
An average train takes four to five minutes to clear a crossing, Wiseman said, and when a car goes up against a train, the train wins.
“People have to remember,” he said. “A tie is still a loss.”
In 2007, Colorado had 31 railroad-crossing collisions and two fatalities, according to the Longmont Police Department.
Bell said Longmont police investigate about eight train collisions with people and vehicles every year. For instance, in April 2008 a man who fell asleep on the tracks near Fourth Avenue and Atwood Street lost a foot when he was hit by a train.
