Pickup’s Passenger Injured as Switch Crew Shoves Cars into Truck at Crossbuck Crossing
(York, Pennsylvania – September 5, 2012)
A Pennsylvania short line railroad switch crew, shoving a string of freight cars with the locomotive on the opposite end, injured the female passenger of a pickup truck when the boxcar leading the consist crashed into the passenger side of the pickup at the dangerous, unguarded crossing of Albemarle Street and York Railroad Company tracks in York, PA early Wednesday morning about 6:38 A.M.
Although the driver of the pickup, John Owewiler, 77, was uninjured, his female companion, thought to be his wife, was rushed to an area hospital for treatment of her injuries.
The York RR/Albemarle Street crossing is “protected” solely by standard, passive railroad crossbuck signs, and has no active protection such as flashing lights, bells or crossing gates, the presence of which railroad industry statistics prove would prevent over 90% of railroad crossing accidents.
York Police investigating the accident said that train crew members saw the truck on the tracks and attempted to warn the driver with a flag and a handheld flare, but to no avail.
The York Railroad is one of 63 domestic and international railroads owned and operated by the massive Genesee & Wyoming short line and regional railroad conglomerate headquartered in Greenwich, CT.
