One witness described the scene as horrible.
A Maricopa man, driving in a silver sedan, collided with a westbound service train as it was working on the railroad tracks at Porter Road and the Union Pacific Railroad.
The railroad crossing arms at the intersection did not go down around 4 p.m. Oct. 16, leading to the accident and raising questions about safety at train crossings in Maricopa.
The driver of the car, 55-year-old Zack Coryellbattle, was taken to Chandler Regional Medical Center, where he was treated and released.
A Union Pacific team spent a week at the site, assessing what happened. A Union Pacific representative said the company was investigating and coordinating efforts with law enforcement.
Spokesman Jeff DeGrath said, “It’s too early to say definitively” what happened to the crossing arms.
Union Pacific and the Maricopa Police have not responded to repeated requests from InMaricopa for their reports on the incident.
Earlier, another Union Pacific representative speculated the service train kicked up debris, covering the crossing arm’s sensor. The ballast vehicle cleans and smoothes gravel and rock on or under the tracks.
“Union Pacific is very concerned for those involved in accident.” DeGrath said. “We take safety very seriously. When accidents happen, we want to know all of the facts and circumstances. If we can prevent it in the future, we will.”
Emergency crews responded to the scene. The driver’s side and front of Coryellbattle’s car were damaged.
Maricopa Police spokesman Ricky Alvarado said: “The arms didn’t work like they’re supposed to.”
Witness Debroah Reel-Gialopoulous wrote on the InMaricopa Facebook page that she was in the car behind Coryellbattle during the accident.
“I pulled him out of his car,” Gialopoulous said. “It would have been me if it was just seconds later. It was a horrible accident.
“It wasn’t like a full-size train barreling at us,” she added. “It was a worker rig, and it was thankfully not going as fast. It wasn’t until I stopped that I saw the rig myself. He just happened not to see it.”
Several roads cross the tracks on Maricopa’s southeast side. The failure at Porter Road brings into question the safety of other crossings.
“The bigger concern should be why the guards and lights failed,” Gialopoulous said. “I cross this intersection a minimum of six times a day.”
The accident was a reminder about safety near railroad crossings.
“Thank God everyone is OK,” Aylssa Marie Westfall wrote on the InMaricopa Facebook page. “That must have been very scary. Reminds me to be very careful.”
The Federal Railroad Administration administers a quiet zone for Maricopa at Porter Road and White and Parker Road intersections, Alvarado said.
“If we see signs of imminent danger, we will sound the train horn,” DeGrath said. “The train horn is our primary safety device, even in a Quiet Zone.”
Union Pacific is working hard for safety, Maricopa Police Chief Steve Stahl said.
“We often take driving a motor vehicle too lightly,” Stahl said. “It is a multi-task event that should require all our attention while driving. There’s a reason why buses stop regardless of whether crossing arms are down or not at the railroad crossing.”
The chief said drivers always should slow down around the tracks, which run east-west through the heart of Maricopa.
“We owe it to ourselves, to our children, to all of the community to slow down when we come upon railway tracks – even if the arms are up – and listen, and look both ways, to ensure that we’re being safe.”
Stahl said the safety solution is two-fold: “The railway has to keep doing what they do, and do it better because we cannot afford mistakes – one mistake is too many mistakes. But in the same vein, we as drivers have to do our part, too, and make sure we drive safely.”
