RR crossing concern after driver killed

SUFFOLK, Va. (WAVY) - A Chesapeake family is calling for change at the railroad crossing where their son lost his life.

Drake Goodrich, 37, died last week when a train collided with the tractor trailer he was driving. Goodrich was crossing the railroad tracks at 1325 Portsmouth Blvd. in Suffolk.

His father says the crossing isn't safe, and other drivers agree. Leon Goodrich says he won't rest until active warnings are installed at the crossing. Right now, there's only a stop sign and crossbucks in each direction. Crossing is left to the driver's discretion. But there is another problem that makes the decision to cross more difficult.

"The trees are blocking everything," said Leon Goodrich, the driver's father. "It is basically impossible to get the vehicle across that track until you pull completely up on it."

WAVY.com filmed trucks doing just that. Drivers inched toward the tracks in an effort to look both ways. We asked the drivers where the crossing ranks in terms of danger.

"It's the hardest one I've ever been around," said John Brinkley, who has driven tractor trailers for 17 years. "I mean most of them are gated if you can't see, but this one, of course, isn't gated. Just a stop sign up there."

But it's not clear who to complain to. A spokesperson for the train company, CSX, says the crossing is private, meaning the company is not responsible for it. A Suffolk city spokesperson told us the city is not responsible for that crossing either. 

"I hope the city, the state, or the train company does what they're supposed to do, so no one else loses their life," said Goodrich. "Because it's hard to lose a child."

The U.S. Department of Transportation Crossing Inventory Information lists the crossing as private, but does not specify a crossing owner.

The Federal Railroad Administration's guidelines for grade crossing safety improvements state: "If the highway is a private roadway intended for non-public access to private property ( ie: farmland, industrial or residential) then responsibility for grade crossing safety improvements is determined by the contractual arrangement between the railroad and the private property owner."

A Federal Railroad Administration spokesperson says there have been two other accidents at the crossing in the past, one in 1994 and one in 2001.

A 1994 accident report says a driver was injured after a train struck the automobile that had stopped on the crossing. At that time, there were only crossbucks and no stop sign, according to the report.

In the 2001 accident at the crossing, the accident report narrative reads, "A vehicle was moving over a private crossing and lead engine...struck the highway user." The driver of the vehicle was not injured.

In both cases, the reports state the drivers' views of the track were not obstructed.

A CSX spokesperson estimates six trains run through the crossing daily, at speeds up to 40 mph.

Stay with WAVY News 10 and WAVY.com for updates on this developing story.