Due to railway tracks leading to the country’s busiest railway center Chicago, the suburban residents of the entire region often face delays. But in Dixmur, the problem is more than only a small discomfort – this is a daily despair.
The goods trains often stop and stand at the crossing for hours, which blocks traffic and disrupts daily life. Despite years of complaints from the residents, much less or no action has been taken to address it, which the local people and officers call it a serious security threat.
Steve Bettel, a resident of Dixmur, for a long time, has been well aware of the struggle. As a security guard for many businesses in the area, they have seen the crossing being blocked for hours.
He said, “I have seen him sometimes for two, three hours.” “I don’t understand how they can avoid it.”
Dixmur Mayor Fitzgerald Roberts said that trains stop in the village at least once a day, often stopping for more than 30 minutes to more than 12 hours. He said that on January 14, a train stood for more than 12 hours, starting from 9 am when he woke up, and the crossing remained even after 10:30 pm when he went to bed.
“I could not believe it. It is ridiculous, “Roberts said. “Nobody is helping us and it has been an issue for years, but needs to do something. We need to make an overpass, just something. ”
Federal Railroad Administration spokesman William Wong said that people who are delayed on the blocked crossings can call the phone number posted on the blue emergency notification system mark located at each grade crossing.
Wong wrote to the Daily Southtown, “If the problem of blocked crossing persistent, residents can report to their local elected officials, who may be able to work with the railroad to reduce the incidents of blocked crossings. Are.” “Otherwise, they may want to use alternative routes when they are available and viable.”
But Bettel and others say that they have used numbers to report blocked crossings and still nothing has been done.
While the blocked crossing causes residents at the crossing on Wood Street and Robbie Avenue, Bettel said the problem is worse with Western Avenue, where tracks cut the road in the 139th and 145th blocks.
Over the years, residents say the problem has become worse.
Many residents, especially living in two mobile home parks between the tracks, have moved an online Facebook group to share concerns about getting stuck between stagnant trains, there is no way to escape.
For those living between two rail crossings on Western Avenue, residents say there is no easy way to move around trains.
Sythia Mosuto, a long resident of Smith Mobile Home Park, located between two Western Avenue Crossing and candidate for Dixmur Mayor in April, said she was trapped between two freight trains on more than one occasion.
He said, “People here get out quickly due to trains, but if you get stuck in the middle, you cannot do anything.” “The only thing you can do is to sit in your car.”
Wong also recommended that the residents report blocked crossings through a blocking crossing incident reporter web portal of the federal railway administration. The data is used to help determine the use of local blocked crossing issues to help the resources and efforts of the administration to help determine, “said Wong.
However, Mosuto, who has been using the portal over the years, said she never received any response. He said that calling the number posted on the crossing is the most effective way to contact, although it does not always guarantee the answer.
Ever since the federal railway administration began to track blocked crossings through the web portal in 2019, 237 complaints have been made in Dixmur, 66% of which have been recorded on crossings on Western Avenue.
Residents have reported to stop trains for 12 hours, a report claimed that a train was stopped for more than 24 hours.
In Dixmur, the portal suggests that 18% of the complaints were made because the first respondents were unable to cross the track. Additionally, 21% of the complaints stated that the pedestrians were climbing the train cars to cross, or through it.
The remaining 45% of the complaints cited other issues such as trapped among trains, disappearance from school or school, disruption of traffic or how often the crossing is blocked in the city.
While the appointments for the blocked crossing residents are making it difficult to reach their homes, Roberts said that security has always been their biggest concern.
He said, many of the youth of Dixmur walk on foot to school, but since trains often block crossings, they have often seen children climbing or down trains to go to school and come back.
The danger of children climbing on stopped trains attracted national attention in 2023, after a report by Provoca and Investigation, which told how repeated train obstacles gave parents to parents either their children from school Forced to take a risky decision to stop or cross the tracks. train.
Roberts said, “Parents are often late in bringing their children from school. Along with a part of the under -construction Ashrsland Avenue at Riverdale, Roberts said that the only way to bypass the train blocking Western Avenue is the only way to take expressway via Calumet Park, Riverdale and Harvey.
Wong said that the federal railway administration does not respond to every complaint made through the portal. However, he said that if the agency receives a “important” number of complaints about a particular crossing within a time limit of two weeks.
Nevertheless, the agency is limited on what action it can take, as there is no federal law or regulation that determines a specific time limit of how long the trains can block grade crossing, Wong said.
Most of the complaints on the portal were recorded for CSX trains, the remaining Indiana Harbor belt railroad company, which is operated on the tracks connecting each other in Dixmur.
“Each crossing is different, and blocked crossings can occur due to different reasons, including mechanical issues, changes in customers’ needs, joining with other trains, compulsory safety inspection, federal-intended crew changes or dynamic demands of supply Are included. The series on ports or other means of transport, “wrote to Southartown by a CSX spokesperson.
The railway administration ordered the train employees including drivers and conductors to rest for some time after shift. Under the US law, train workers cannot work for more than 12 hours consecutive hours without receiving at least 10 hours of continuous leave.
Bettel said, “If you have been living in this field for a long time, I think you know that nothing can be done about it.” “I think there will be a tragedy in some changes. And thinking like this is very terrible. ”
In 2022, Dixmur Police Chief Lionel Smith said the worst happened when the police found a call for emergency assistance for a woman who experienced chest pain in a mobile home near the intersection of Silli Avenue and 139th Street. Emergency medical technicians took him to Ushikago Medicine Engels Memorial in an ambulance, but due to “gridlock trains” he had to change the route seven times, which stopped for about 2 1/2 hours, as he had earlier told Southtown.
He said that ambulances and officers had to pass through residential parts of Dixmur and Harvey to reach the hospital, where the patient was declared dead.
Smith said this was the only example where the first respondent was unable to save someone’s life due to blocked trains, and no serious problems have arisen since then.
Poseen could not be reached to the firefighting department, which serves Dixmur.
Smith said that over time public security personnel have learned how to work around the stalled trains.
He said, “This has been happening here for a very long time, it is not just Dixmur.” “This is the concern of all of us for public safety, so we have learned to adapt.”
For Bechtail, dealing with trains has become a routine; When you get trapped, you get frustrated, then a few days pass, and you forget – until this happens again. He said, this is a cycle and when enough people do not speak, nothing changes.