RR Crossing Troubles

DECKER, IND. (WTHI) -      Motorists and county officials in southern Indiana are expressing frustration over railroad crossings.

     Knox County officials say that years of raising the tracks by CSX have left many crossings too high to navigate.

    One official is so frustrated that he is contemplating a lawsuit against the railroad.

    The Purcell Station Road crossing in southern Knox County hasn't always been a problem for motorists but it is now.

     After years of being built up the traffic sight lines are almost blocked and the pavement is scarred from close encounters of the heavy kind.

     "They've raised it over the years and raised it," said President of the Knox County Commissioners Kevin Meyer, "but they haven't raised the approaches.  The farmers are buying bigger equipment, longer equipment and we don't want to get..we had an instance in Knox County where a lo-boy did get caught on the tracks."

     Purcell Station isn't the only CSX crossing that's a problem in the southern part of the county, similar issues have begun to show up on Essex Road and Mays Road.

     The county says they are perfectly willing to work with CSX to get the approaches built up and make the crossings more safe.

  The problem is they can't seem to get the railroad's attention.

     "I've made several phone calls," said Meyer.  "I'm just not getting anywhere and that is frustrating."

     The lack of response by CSX even has the county contemplating filing a lawsuit.

     "If I had to I guess I would," said Meyer.  "I just don't think the Knox County taxpayers should pay for that asphalt and that labor to raise the roads to meet the tracks."

     Officials say they want CSX to carry some of the financial load to fix a problem the railroad built up along its tracks in the first place.

     Knox County has 2 major CSX lines running through it carrying more than 70 trains each day.