Drivers: Crossing gates regularly malfunction

Crossing is site of fatal crash of GOP lawmakers’ train

CROZET, Va. — The safety arms at a railroad crossing where a train carrying Republican lawmakers slammed into a garbage truck appeared to be malfunctioning the day before the deadly crash, drivers who regularly cross over the tracks at the crash scene said Thursday.

Gene Locke, who lives near the tracks in Crozet, said he pulled up to the crossing between 8:30 and 9:30 a.m. Tuesday and saw that the safety arms were down and the signal light was flashing, but no train was approaching from either direction. After waiting a minute or so, he backed up, turned around and took a different route, assuming there was either a malfunction of the signal crossing or workers were testing it.

“I did not report this, as it was the first time this has happened in my observation since I have been using that crossing for several years,” Locke told The Associated Press.

Jane Rogers, who lives about 2 miles from the crash site, said that when she arrived at the crossing Tuesday, the gate was down, even though there were no trains approaching. She said after waiting, one car in front of her and two cars behind her turned around. Then, as she started to turn around, the gate went up. One car then crossed the tracks, but Rogers said she waited another 30 seconds and the gate went down again. No trains passed, she said.

“It was a weird up-anddown thing,” she said. “Then the next day, the accident happened at that intersection.”

Carrie Brown, human resources manager at Buckingham Branch Railroad, which leases the stretch of track and is responsible for maintenance, said Wednesday that she was unaware of any problems with equipment at the crossing.

Rogers said she reported the trouble to the police after she heard about the fatal crash. She said she would have called about the malfunctioning arm Tuesday, “but who do you call? No one knows.”