Mere seconds can be the difference between life and death at rural railroad crossings–but efforts to make these crossings safer are stalled by government bureaucracy and railways that are looking to others to solve the problems for them.
An investigation by The Kansas City Star and three of its reporters—Judy L. Thomas, Laura Bauer and Kevin Hardy—documented the dangers of railroad crossings in 12 states that have the most miles of public track. Their work has been recognized with the 2023 Casey Feldman Award for Transportation Safety Reporting.
Their findings, as told in “Hundreds Crash at Dangerous Rail Crossings That Should Have Been Fixed. Whose Fault Is It?”, show that:
- 46 percent of deadly collisions occur in rural areas or small towns.
- Flashing lights and gates can reduce collisions, but many railroad crossings don’t have them.
- Railroads pay little for improving safety at crossings, instead relying on government funding to pay for upgrades, and for labor and lodging costs for railroad workers to complete the upgrades.
The reporting award honors Casey Feldman, a Fordham University journalism student who was killed by a distracted driver in 2009. The award is sponsored by EndDD.org, which was created by the Casey Feldman Memorial Foundation to end distracted driving, and by the journalism department at the University of Colorado Boulder’s College of Media, Communication and Information.
The New York Times and reporters Peter Eavis, Mark Walker and Niraj Chokshi were awarded an honorable mention for their work on “Norfolk Southern’s Push for Profits Compromised Safety, Workers Say.” The story explores staffing issues at Norfolk Southern and declining safety ratings that predated the derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, in February 2023.
The Kansas City Star team received a first-place prize of $2,000 for its reporting work, and the New York Times team received a $500 award.