I'm not sure what the appropriate solution is but the city of Gentry still has a major unresolved public safety issue which seems to get pushed into the background while the city focuses on numerous other issues. As I understand, it is an issue which a previous council promised to address but still no resolution has occurred.
Though it has come up at city council meetings on numerous occasions during the last six years I have been living and working in Gentry, I too have often forgotten about the issue entirely until someone or something else brings it to mind.
I was reminded of that issue last Tuesday night when I was returning from Gravette after photographing a basketball game and turned onto the Arkansas Highway 59 spur which passes the McKee Foods plant and found a train parked on the tracks, blocking the road.
Parked there in the dark and misty night with flashers on so no one would run into it was a tractor-trailer rig. The driver was waiting to cross the tracks and deliver to McKee Foods. Before turning around to take another route home, I got out and talked with the driver of the truck.
He was not a McKee driver but drove for another company delivering to McKee. He had been waiting for more than 15 minutes and had no idea how long it would be until the train moved. I told him the train would probably be there until another train passed, coming from the other direction - I couldn't tell which way the parked train was going because I couldn't see the engines.
The driver of the parked truck told me another big truck had pulled in behind him but had backed around the curved road and across Arkansas Highway 59 to find another way to the plant. I assume this was another trucking company delivering to McKee because McKee truck drivers are not permitted to back out of the spur and across the highway. The waiting driver said he didn't think backing out was safe and didn't consider it an option but he hoped the train would move soon.
After visiting with the truck driver for about five minutes, I returned to my pickup truck, did a threepoint turn and went around the curve and back to the highway. I wondered how another truck pulling a semi-trailer could have seen well enough to back around the curve. I've driven lots of miles in big trucks and wouldn't want to do it in the dark.
When I reached the highway intersection, I realized there was no possible way a driver could see in either direction to safely back a trailer across the highway and on to Shankles Road so as to turn back out on Highway 59 and go to the Main Street or the Third Street (Arkansas Highway 12) overpass. With the fence and trees on the north side of the spur and along the highway, I had to inch out in my pickup truck to see far enough to safely turn south onto Highway 59.
I was able to cross the tracks on Main Street. The train was only blocking the one intersection and not two or three. I have no idea how long the truck driver waited to cross the tracks and deliver his goods to McKee Foods. When I got home, I could hear the horns of another train approaching and hoped that meant the train blocking the tracks would soon be able to move.
I also don't know if other trucks turned onto the spur and rounded the curve, only to find their way blocked and then backed across the highway hoping that motorists would see their lights and stop as their trailers were backed blindly across the busy roadway. I wondered how many times this happens each day or each week.
What surprises me is that there has not yet been a serious accident on a dark and, perhaps, damp and misty night like last Tuesday, when a truck driver became impatient and backed his trailer across the highway. If a car or pickup truck traveling the speed limit there runs underneath a trailer, chances of it being less than a fatality accident are not good.
Finding the right solutionto the safety problem is a difficult question. A truck turn-around has been discussed but the city would need to purchase a piece of land, build a turn-around area big enough and with a surface which could withstand turning truck traffic and also keep it clear of parked vehicles and debris so trucks could use it. Lighting, too, would be a big help because it's dark there.
Other options discussed include a warning light on the highway when trains are parked on the track, diverting all truck traffic to other access roads and even a second overpass.
There are unanswered issues with each of these. A warning light may prevent trucks from turning onto the spur when a train is parked there but what about the truck which turns just as a train approaches? Main Street to Railroad Avenue might be a good option, except that trains sometimes block Main Street too, but trucks coming off Highway 59 may be able to turn onto S. McKinnon and safely get back to the highway. Entering from the Third Street overpass or from South Collins would make the intersection of Third and Collins even more dangerous than it now is because of the lack of visibility caused by the overpass.
A second overpass would be, perhaps, the ideal solution. The cost, however, is prohibitive.
Another suggestion, which may not even be a possibility because of railroad right-of-way and private land ownership, would be to build a street (or gravel road) on the east side of the railroad between the Highway 59 spur and Main Street to allow trucks trapped by parked trains to turn south there and exit at Main Street or McKinnon. I expect there may be other ideas out there as well.
One thing of which I am certain is that this issue should not be left on the back burner any longer. A solution needs to be found before our police and fire departments are summoned to the intersection of Highway 59 and the spur leading to McKee Foods because an impatient truck driver backed his trailer across the highway and an unsuspecting motorist didn't see it in time and drove under it.
Randy Moll is the managing editor of the Westside Eagle Observer. He may be reached by email at [email protected].
Opinion, Pages 6 on 02/15/2012