HOUSTON – Texas leads the nation in railroad-track miles at 10,386 miles. Those tracks are the source of heartbreak for many Texas families.
One family in particular is that of 69-year-old Johnnie Harris, a longtime educator at Kashmere High School in HISD.
Her son Frank Harris describes getting an urgent call at work about his mom.
“They said I needed to get down to the school as soon as possible. It was hard to believe.”
On Dec. 13, Frank’s mom was walking around lunchtime near the intersection of Bennington Street and Lockwood drive with several of her students when tragedy struck.
“They realize they’re in a little bit of trouble and the kids are able to make it off the track and she’s just not,” says Harris.
It was a route his mom took all the time. On foot.
Passengers and pedestrians alike are confronting dangerous situations like these all over greater Houston. The Federal Railroad Administration says risky behavior by drivers is responsible for 87 percent of all rail-crossing accidents.
While some of this risky behavior may be obvious, it is often unintentional -- and deadly. Channel 2 Investigates found that part of the problem at crossings happens while cars are stopped at a red light on the tracks. When the warning signs of an impending train begin to flash, these cars can be trapped with cars in front of and behind them. The car in the middle is stuck with nowhere to go.
A train traveling at a speed of 55 mph takes a full mile or more to come to a complete stop.
Harris believes more could have been done to have given his mom a fighting chance.
“You really need to stick your neck to see the train even coming around the bend. I definitely think there’s not enough signage for the crossing part. I think the lion’s share of the warnings is cars. I don’t think they’re thinking about pedestrian traffic, in a sense. My mom wouldn’t have been the type of person that’s gonna cross or crawl under you know crosswalk type of thing. So if there had been something impeding her path, she would not have gotten on the track at all.”
Combing over years of federal records, Channel 2 Investigates found that since 2014, there have been 115 collisions at crossings. And that’s just in Harris County.
We’ve combed through federal railway records to identify and map the most dangerous railroad crossings in Harris, Fort Bend, Brazoria, Montgomery and Galveston counties. Do you live or work near one? Find out here.
View Most Dangerous Railroad Crossings in a full screen map