Trains silent as Fairfield's quiet zone becomes official.

http://www.heartlandconnection.com/ne...

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  News & Politics

[tejasnitemd]

trains are here to stay and will continue to increase,,, educate the people more and more about pedestrian, motorcycle,bicycle, auto crash prevention & safety, the trains aren't the problem they blow the horns because the public is the dangerous ones

[Justin Aalbers]

I caught wind that Ottumwa is sniffing around for a quiet zone as well.

[tejasnitemd]

wait roll someone visits there and its not use to the quit zone, but again people should read signs especially when in unfamiliar areas,,, actually people should new trained around ANY Railroad To practice extreme CAUTION

[Bobby Harvey]

If something like this did happen in a quiet zone, one of the first things people would ask is "was the horn sounded?" Maybe a little, but not enough to provide a real warning. Then the family would sue the railroad, or the city, neither of which was at fault, and then the city/railroad would have to pay damages totaling who knows how much. This happens to the railroads all the time, unjust as it is, and I fear that lawsuits like this are more likely with no train horn. Just my opinion.

[Bobby Harvey]

An interesting question to ask yourselves would be this: what if somebody did try to go around the medians? Whether it's possible or not, somebody is going to try it. Like I said earlier, warning devices are blatantly ignored by some people in certain situations. The recent accident in Batavia is a prime example. You think a median would have stopped that? She just would have started around the gate a little earlier, that's all. And the result would have been the same.

[Bobby Harvey]

The *real* issue, that I'm sure everyone tries to not talk about, is that people in today's society just don't want to hear the noise. They could care less about whether the crossings are made safer or not, they just don't want to hear the noise. And, I suppose cities figure they'd better silence the horns otherwise the "health" and "wellness" of the city would be diminished, or the city wouldn't appear to be a good place to live, or something.

[Bobby Harvey]

I'm not trying to argue that these upgraded crossings are not safer than normal ones, of course they are. What I'm trying to say here is that, even with upgraded crossings, silencing the horns is *still* not safe! This can be refuted as well, but it's just as true.

[Michael Halley]

No "hopefully" about it, the facts are in the statistics: medians are more effective at preventing railway accidents than train horns. You can refute this fact all you like but it won't make it any less true.

[Michael Halley]

Please research the enhanced safety statistics of quiet zones before claiming that they're less safe than horns. All the data proves that adding supplemental safety measures, especially medians that prevent vehicles from driving around lowered gates, leads to fewer accidents than the train horn scenario. The Federal Railroad Administration is the authority on quiet zones, read their website for more real information on the subject.

[ImprezaV Trev]

I agree with Bobby in this situation. Most Americans are ignorant these days, And most try to go around the gate. Or texting and blasting music, the horn IS there for a reason! A safety device, I love trains, and Locomotive whistles and horns, they keep people safe, Apparently making it quiet in a city is more important than safety. Wow. Just.... Wow.