With the tragic death of 83-year-old Peter Klaus in a train accident, it is apparent the need to install gates and flashing lights at train crossings is still an immediately pressing issue.
It should not take the death of a community member in order to obligate such safety measures.
The editorial board of The Miami Student believes that in such an unfortunate event, questions of responsibility are important and necessary to ask.
It is clear that as more traffic comes through an area, more steps need to be taken to ensure the safety of drivers who may not be as familiar with where train crossings are. However, a level of responsibility does rest upon drivers to ensure their safety.
It is the responsibility of the railroad companies to make the intersections as apparent and noticeable as possible. While it is perhaps too costly and wouldn't be beneficial enough to implement flashing lights and drop gates at every single train crossing in the area, the board believes this event is a strong enough call to mandate more of a focus on train safety.
For drivers, this would mean paying attention to signs that may often go otherwise ignored, such as yield signs, in order to fully ensure safety. As it is the unfortunate custom for drivers to sometimes ignore the idea of looking both ways when at crossings or texting and talking on phones while driving, it is clear drivers have to reconsider their priorities in order to ensure their own safety when driving.
While it is indeed the responsibility of the railway to make crossings as conspicuous as possible, it is a driver's responsibility to take note of the warnings put forth and to take care in observing those safeguards.
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