Scott L. Miley, CNHI News Indiana Statehouse Reporter, and Dave Taylor, Tribune-Star
A court ruling this week concerning blocked railroad crossings in a northeastern Indiana city has potential implications for crossing- laden Terre Haute.
The Indiana Court of Appeals on Tuesday found police were within the law in issuing Norfolk Southern Railroad Co. 23 citations in 2015 for blocking crossings in the Fort Wayne suburb of New Haven.
The case was sent back to Allen County, but no date has been set yet for a hearing.
The tickets were for violating a state law barring trains from obstructing travel for more than 10 minutes. The railroad has a switching yard in New Haven, and the coupling and uncoupling of cars often leads to blocked crossings.
A similar situation exists with the CSX Transportation Co. yard on Terre Haute’s south side. Crossings are frequently blocked not only on nearby Margaret Avenue, where an overpass is being built, but also farther south on Davis Drive, as far north as Crawford Street and occasionally beyond.
Terre Haute police often cite trains for blocking crossings, Chief John Plasse said Wednesday, and the City Clerk’s Office confirmed that tickets are filed.
Neither Plasse nor the Clerk’s Office could immediately say how many citations are pending, but Michelle Edwards, chief deputy clerk, suggested such tickets are not as common as they once were. CSX has challenged the citations in the past. An August 2009 Tribune-Star article indicated more than 400 tickets were pending from a two-year period.
The New Haven case ended up before the appeals court because an Allen County judge ruled federal laws concerning interstate commerce pre-empted state law.
However, the Indiana Attorney General’s Office appealed the decision, and the appellate court found federal laws do not explicitly pre-empt state law concerning blocked crossings.
© 2024 Community Newspaper Holdings, Inc.