MISSOURI CITY – On Nov. 19, a railroad crossing located at Cravens Road and US 90 in Missouri City experienced its 11th train versus vehicle accident in less than a decade.
For 2021 alone, the total count of accidents stands at two, according to Lt. Russell Terry with the Missouri City Police Department.
In January 2019, KPRC 2 Investigates captured the dangers of the railroad crossing with Missouri City police Sergeant Tracy Cox. Our cameras captured large semis with long trailers jammed up at the intersection, a good portion of their trailer on the train tracks. What we noticed, that if a train was coming at that moment, the semi would either face impact or pull into traffic and collide with several vehicles since US 90 is consistently a busy highway.
During our investigation two years ago, Sgt. Tracy Cox said he helped complete a report and submit it to the city in August 2017, which focused on improving the intersection through reengineering. His interview came only a few months after a truck and Amtrak train collided. Like the accident from Nov. 19, that accident resulted in no injuries.
In the nearly three years since that report, the crossing and the intersection look exactly the same. The city says they have put up more signs alerting truck drivers. However, reengineering the intersection is still a work in progress since it requires coordination with TxDOT.
Shashi Kumar with Missouri City Public Works said they are waiting on the state’s public funds, but during our interview, he made it clear that he is now in search of an immediate solution.
”We want to push this aggressively with TXDOT and other stakeholders,” said Kumar. “I will immediately have my team contact the TxDOT local office and escalate this to the district office to see how we can work together to find a solution expeditiously. As you said, it’s been three to four years since we’ve made any concrete improvements.”
KPRC 2 Investigates will monitor the improvements in the coming months to see if the aggressive push results in engineering changes at the intersection.
To watch the 2019 report, click here.