Sad to hear of loss of life. These poorly protected ag crossings have been an ongoing problem for years. If they backed down to Salinas, maybe it's because they needed a "wash".

There were several of these accidents, including at least one big fatal one, over the years in Ventura County at these private ag crossings, and I know Ginger wanted to close them all (sealed ROW). I don't know how far that finally went, but in this day and age, these have been responsible for way too many rail/motor vehicle accidents.

I'll try to find that data, but a few years back I saw some data that these unprotected (stope sign or crossing bucks, no gates or any automated warning) agricultural grade crossings were the most unsafe grade crossings in the nation having one of the very highest "rates" of rail collisions, for the very low numbers of vehicles that use them.