Pawtucket City Council will address train tracks causing car damages
PAWTUCKET – As the Claims & Pending Suits Committee Chair, City Council Vice President Michael Araujo has seen more claims from people asking for reimbursement for tires and undercarriages damaged by railroad tracks up and down George Bennett Highway and adjacent streets.
During the regularly-scheduled council meeting at the Jenks Middle School/Jacqueline M. Walsh School for the Performing & Visual Arts last Wednesday, an obviously-concerned Araujo asked Council President Terry Mercer if he would speak with City Solicitor Frank Milos about reaching out to the track owners, Providence-Worcester Railroad.
The council voted unanimously (9-0) on the action, and Mercer said he would talk to Milos this past weekend. Araujo confirmed on Wednesday evening that Mercer had already asked Milos to open a conversation with the railroad’s powers-that-be to repair shaky sections of track meeting roadway.
“Our Claims Committee had received, to my knowledge, a few claims this year, but two came up last week, and I also saw one on the docket that said there was another claim for a railroad incident; thaw will come up at April’s Claims meeting,” Araujo said. “If we find that it was definitely a train track issue that caused car damage in one way, shape or form, then we deny it and refer it to the Providence-Worcester Railroad.”
Araujo said he had talked with City Clerk Richard Goldstein, and he told him that when he’s driving down George Bennett Highway and takes a left onto Monticello Road, his vehicle will “slip” as a result of loose or damaged track.
He also mentioned another constituent had informed him of more potentially damaged tracks near or at the intersections of Bennett Highway and Armistice Boulevard and the highway and Central Avenue.
“There is some tire slippage at the corner of Monticello and
Bennett, near the post office,” Araujo said. “My thing is we’re getting claims for tire damage or undercarriage damage to the cars; people are getting flat tires. People come to us with a claim for those things, and it’s from the railroad tracks. We end up denying it and referring it.
“The whole idea of me asking President Mercer
to reach out to our solicitor … was to do something about it. I’m hopeful that if the city solicitor could start a dialogue, they would want to collaborate and work together with us. I don’t know if that’s going to happen, but that’s my hope.”
Araujo said that this is the first time as head of this committee, which also consists of Roberto Moreno and Yesenia Rubio, he’s come across such an issue, but he believes this same board may have had some similar claims and concerns in the past.
“I think it’s very important we start a dialogue with them,” he said. “Like I said, if a claimant
sustains a tire issue and they come to us and we deny it because it wasn’t the street itself, then they have to go to the railroad and resolve it themselves. That’s even more time they have to wait to have their case heard.
“Meanwhile, if the railroad folks find that it was something negligible, those people who end up winning a claim will have to wait even longer, and that’s not right. I just don’t want the drivers on our city streets to have an issue because of the train tracks, those that haven’t been taken care of. I’m asking if they can have the conversations so they can come up with some form of corrective action.
“That is, inspect the tracks, fix all the tracks that need it and inspect the tracks moving forward. If they see an issue, fix it. This way, it would save them a claim and us a claim, and it’s also going to save a driver the headache of having a popped tire and having to get it fixed.”
Mercer also pointed out that Milos should ask the railroad to look at brighter lighting and repainting white warning lines around the curbing lining such tracks. He said that in reference to the age-old problem of people driving onto the tracks/curbing.