Killer trains? Or Killer Motorists?

Since alcohol impairment was the cause of 31% of all auto accident fatalities, and assuming that that number is the same for folks intentionally driving through a closed crossing with integrated stop and quad gates down, then as a former RR Engineer and someone who has had a second long career involved with this RR safety issue, I'm going to be really callous, and say, don't feel too bad, at least in 1 and 3 cases I took a drunk driver off of the road....the hard way.

Yes, I actually said that. Since I sincerely do hope the train got them, before that same person drives drunk through a cross walk full of elementary school kids, and kills unimpaired children, in the some estimated 60% of accidents where alcohol was involved, without the victim being impaired.

A colleague of mine, working on finally fully integrating the traffic signals with the Blue Line grade crossings, noted that average blood alcohol of a Blue Line fatality was 2.3 (over 3 times the legal limit). The worst, of course, was the New Years eve massacre, where drunken party goers, hired a bandit cab, with a driver drunker than they were, and then for blocks raced parallel to the train, before turning and running the gates, and killing all of them....

Full traffic signal integration and crossing upgrades have cut those Blue Line grade crossing accidents and fatalities dramatically..... Empirical evidence from the Blue Line might suggest that, that drunks were way less likely to stop for a flashing red, as opposed to a flashing red..... Sober drivers are also more confused by flashing red, as well.

I support grade separations, there are probably 500 unfunded high priority grade separations out there right now, that are primarily needed because of the severe traffic congestion they cause, but many (like Oxnard) which have a history of serious rail accidents.

And, of course, these $40 to $240 million each grade separation projects just grow on trees...in the pie in the sky, in the great bye and bye......right after the "great infrastructure initiative" to rebuild our outdated, aging, and obsolete infrastructure.

The same generic "infrastructure" rah-rah nonsense that I've heard from every stripe of politician, pandering to either fringe, or just trying to placate the other 90% of the public who stuck in gridlocked traffic, on crappy roads that are falling apart, and are rightly pissed about it, for most of my career....

Occasionally, these politicians will grow a pair, and do something, and they face public wrath pay hell for it, if they actually asked the public who demands these things to pay for them with taxes..... But mostly, from the vast assortment of gutless pols I've known, it's just been a lot of "happy talk" for the gullible rubes (aka voters).....
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If these people want these things they need to figure out how to pay for them.... Arcadia California taxed themselves for the Santa Anita Grade Separation. And yes, they built it for way less than the number above, because of very favorable circumstances, LRT capabilities, and great professionalism in the project management. So see, actual adult behavior can result in good outcomes from competent people of good will......

Meanwhile, I was looking for more specific source date on alcohol related fatalities (post accident toxicology confirmed) at RR crossings, so if any of you know of a professional/academic/NTSB type paper or data source post it.... And. I would love to see that data for CA OR and WA......