Road-rail law faces first test
BNSF cited by Edmond police twice for trains blocking intersections
The Oklahoma Corporation Commission announced Wednesday it has set a hearing before an administrative law judge on two citations a local law agency issued to BNSF Railway that accuses the railroad of blocking a road-rail intersection for longer than 10 minutes without good reason.
The citations were issued under an Oklahoma law that became effective this year, which requires railroads operating in the state to minimize obstructions for emergency vehicles where possible and to avoid blocking a trackroad intersection with a stopped train for longer than 10 minutes.
The citations were issued by officers with the Edmond Police Department on July 17 and on July 29.
On July 17, an officer observed a train blocking road-rail intersections from between Edmond Road and Danforth Road for longer than 20 minutes.
On July 29, an officer observed a train blocking road-rail intersections from Col cord Avenue, which doesn't have a road-rail intersection, to south of W Third Street, which does.
In both cases, at least a
half- dozen road- rail intersections were blocked along a double- tracked corridor, which also includes two spurs that at one time were used by the railroad to offload materials to commercial customers that were located on the west side of the community's central business district.
Also, it is important to note there is a grade-separated crossing on Edmond Road, which provided away for emergency vehicles to avoid the block ages when they happened.
The law, which took effect July 1, doesn't prohibit blockages of longer than 10 minutes entirely. It allows trains to
block road-rail intersections for longer than 10 minutes when one must be halted because of an accident,
derailment, critical mechanical failure, a washout of track or bridge or other emergency condition or order.
It also grants a rail operator a one-time exception of up to 10 additional minutes if a crew can't complete a switching maneuver to subtract or add railcars to a train's consist any more quickly.
Plus, it waives the time limit when a halted train blocks an intersection to allow passage of a second train that's momentarily expected, or, in cases when an operator separates a train's consist to open a nearby road-rail intersection.
Local police, deputy sheriffs and highway patrol troopers are authorized by the law to issue citations to train operators for lengthy intersection blockages.
The law requires contested citations to be heard by an administrative law judge at the commission, with a caveat a judge' s finding could be appealed for a hearing before elected commissioners.
B NSF, which had no comment on the citations Wednesday morning, apparently has asked for that hearing, which commission officials set for 8:30 a.m. Aug. 28.
The process will be interesting to follow, as legislators considering the issue earlier this year stated that similar laws enacted by other states routinely have been nullified because operational oversight of railroads is conducted by the federal government.
If the law were upheld and the fines were imposed, the Oklahoma law would require for 75% of collected fines to be deposited into the general fund of the law enforcement entity that issued the citations, with the remainder going to a revolving fund at the Corporation Commission.