Personal Injury Law

Construction set to improve safety at dangerous Chicago railroad crossing

A rail crossing that is infamous for Chicago railroad car crashes is set to be rebuilt this month in order to improve safety before high school classes resume for students who cross the path over the railroad to get to school. Additionally, the Illinois Commerce Commission has urged that the city of Chicago increase traffic enforcement to reduce Chicago train-vehicle crashes at the congested Nagle Avenue crossing on the Union Pacific Railroad corridor.

According to a Chicago Tribune report, vehicles can be stopped on the tracks at Nagle and many other dangerous Chicago railroad crossings on a daily basis, which is seriously dangerous. Drivers routinely take those risks and despite knowledge of the consistent law breaking, most of the hundreds of tickets issued to drivers at the Chicago railroad crossing for failing to yield to trains or for stopping on the tracks were issued by Union Pacific police, not Chicago police officers. Planned changes to increase safety are planned for between August 23 and September 3 and include new signs, better pavement markings, and new concrete crossing panels. City of Chicago traffic engineers are also evaluating whether changes in the timing of signals would keep the rail crossing clear of vehicles when the traffic lights change from green to red.

More information about the fixes for the dangerous Chicago railroad crossing is available at the Chicago Tribune.

Full post as published by Illinois Injury Lawyer Blog on August 09, 2010 (boomark / email).