COLUMBUS, Ohio — According to the Ohio Rail Development Commission, Richland County will notice the addition of stop signs at 20 railroad crossings over the next several months.
Railroad crossings to see added signs in Mansfield include the crossings at Crall Road, Piper Road, Springmill North Road, Cairns Road and Osbun Road. Additional signs will appear at crossings in Plymouth, five in Shelby and one in Lucas.
For a full list of railroad crossings to change in Richland County, visit the Ohio Rail Development Commission’s website.
Beginning in late 2013, the ORDC and ODOT engineers reviewed approximately 2,000 railroad crossings in Ohio that were deemed passive or unsafe. ORDC Secretary Treasurer Megan McClory said around 1,000 of those reviewed will receive stop signs by mid-2016, amounting to $500 per crossing, or around $550,000 total.
The railroad companies will be in charge of installing and maintaining the stop signs, said McClory.
“Stop signs cause drivers to pay more attention and to look before crossing a railroad crossing. Legislators had the safety of drivers in mind when they passed this,” said McClory.
According to an ORDC press release, drivers will be breaking the law if they fail to stop at railroad crossings that have stop signs. McClory said stop signs have already been installed in Ashtabula and Carroll counties, one has been installed in Akron.
The Ohio General Assembly created a provision in 2013 to the state’s budget to include the installation of stop signs at “passive railroad crossings,” which are crossings that currently do not have traffic signals like flashing lights and roadway gates.
According to the ORDC’s Annual Report for 2013-2014, “Ohio has seen a significant reduction in crashes at railroad crossings over the past 10 years, with a decrease from 117 crashes in 2004 to 61 in 2013. Fatalities have also declined from 13 in 2004 to 8 in 2013.”
The graph above represents national datasets published by the Federal Railroad Association. Nationally, the railroad crossings have been getting safer; fatalities have been on a steady decrease since 1993, with exceptions for 2000, 2004, 2006, 2010, 2013 and 2014.
For more information, visit ORDC’s website.
