Small town Sutersville, PA, with a population fewer than 600, has seen a heavy dosage of railroad crossing tragedies. The past 18 months have seen two tragic deaths and three other critical accidents which nearly resulted in death. The result, unsurprisingly, is a town eagerly fighting to get their railroad crossings protected. Nearby, the town of West Newton with a population of roughly 2,700 has not seen tragedies like this in some time. Sutersville residents point out that West Newton's crossings are outfitted with safety equipment - lights and gates.

A tragic crash occurred yesterday as a Metro passenger train in Washington, D.C. ran into another train at high speeds. As of now, substantial facts are of yet to be reported - the rail cars were not outfitted with recording technology which would have recorded the speed of the train and any mechanical failures. For now, however, officials do not think that mechanical failure was the problem. The rear train rammed full speed into a stopped train in between the Takoma and Fort Totten stations in D.C.

Centralia, Washington city police ticketed roughly 40 drivers who failed to stop at flashing red lights at a railroad crossing. The roughly 40 drivers were unwitting participants in a brief project, whose stated goal was to "improve safety". This goal was supposed to be accomplished by fining the violators in an effort to teach them to act differently next time. A Union Pacific train was used, rolling back and forth to trigger the lights and catch any cars which crossed while the lights flashed.