Not even in town for a full day, Kyle Nickel was about to go to his first college party as a freshman. But before he could take out his phone and find out the exact directions of the house, a shadowy figure appeared from the bushes and shined a bright light on his red and black plaid jacket .
With one step over a single steel rail on East Merry Street, Nickel was envisioning a night behind several steel bars when a police officer yelled, ‘Stop right there!’ and approached Nickel to ask if he knew what he had just done.
‘[Was I] scared?’ Nickel said. ‘My first night here and I’m getting stopped by the cops right away. That’s not good.’
Nickel was just one of 41 people to receive a written warning for crossing the railroad tracks at a non-designated area during a ‘trespass blitz’ conducted by railroad transportation company CSX transportation officers from 8 p.m. Saturday to 4 a.m. Sunday. More than 100 others were seen illegally crossing the tracks but avoided written warnings by being too far away.
‘We are trying to keep people off the railroad tracks because it’s a dangerous place,’ said John Harris, commander for the CSX Police Department.
‘We want them to cross at legal crossings,’ he said. ‘If they are not crossing at a street, they are crossing on private property and that is dangerous.’
A legal crossing is considered any street containing a crossing gate with the proper lights and signs to notify people of when a train is within close proximity.
According to the Bowling Green Police Department, two fatalities occurred in 2007 from pedestrians crossing the tracks at areas without crossing gates. Both were under the influence of alcohol.
And if fear of death is not enough to stop people crossing the railroad anywhere other then the proper areas, CSX transportation officers will be returning to Bowling Green in the coming weeks to issue trespassing tickets that could cost up to $150. BGPD will also increase their efforts to find trespassers as well.
But for some students, crossing the tracks where they feel like it is a convenience they would rather not give up.
‘Honestly, it would take an idiot to not see a train coming on foot, so I’ll keep [crossing the tracks],’ senior Tyler Battershell said.
Battershell understands why he was stopped and talked to, but also said he will be more careful to look out for not only trains, but enforcement officers in the future as well to avoid tickets.
‘It’s good they are helping people out like that,’ senior Ryan Shalek said. ‘[But] it seems kind of silly. You have to be pretty drunk to not realize that a train is going to come and kill you.’
Harris said on a night where there is a lot of action in and around Bowling Green, like the National Tractor Pull Championships, people inebriated could mistake a train horn for a tractor’s and not realize a several hundred pound vehicle is barreling down the tracks at 40 mph.
‘The railroad is dangerous enough without mixing alcohol,’ Harris said.
Making sure everyone stays safe is Harris’ main concern. He said he does not want to deter people from going out because of this rule, but if they do decide to partake in the festivities Bowling Green has to offer, he would like to see people cross the railroad tracks at the appropriate places.
‘We want people to enjoy themselves, have fun, get an education and stay off the railroad,’ he said.
BGPD and CSX transportation officers will be on the lookout to find people crossing at non-designated areas. Listed below are the appropriate spots people can cross (Starting from Poe Road to the south): Parkview Drive Poe Road Frazee Avenue Ridge Street Pike Street East Court Street East Wooster Street Clough Street Scott Hamilton Avenue Lehman Avenue Derby Avenue East Napoleo’ n Road East Gypsy Lane Road
