CALL ME cocky, but I have supreme confidence in my capacity to avoid locomotive trains. A specific moment of epiphany does not come to mind but somewhere along the way I ascertained that massive metal objects traveling at forty-five miles an hour should be avoided. My system for abstaining from all physical contact with trains is pretty simple. I approach the train tracks, at which time I assess whether a train is currently passing or not. Before crossing, I quickly employ the faculties of both my auditory and visual sensing devices, which tend to be excellent identifiers of multi-ton mechanized juggernauts thundering down on me. Next, I assertively step my right foot in the gravel between two tracks, and a whopping 0.7 seconds later I have conquered the beast. Although I maintain that all I have done is exercise my individual right to take care of myself, Charlottesville policemen and several Corner business owners insist that I have both broken the law and seriously endangered myself.
As a fourth-year I can testify that I have crossed the railroad tracks in Charlottesville almost on a daily basis during my time here. It was not until late in my third year that I even learned that it was illegal and that policemen were handing out fines to unsuspecting students. The University Police Department has offered various reasons for their recent crackdown on trespassers, none of which justifies its current policy. Rather, these reasons seem to demand a reassessment of the police’s enforcement of the law itself.
The most common argument offered is that students are in danger of unintentionally getting stuck in the tracks. Have you ever physically tried to get yourself stuck in railroad tracks? Maybe it wasn’t my brightest venture, but recently I spent a solid five minutes trying to manipulate my feet into absurd positions that might qualify me as officially incapable of escape. I found this enterprise to be as awkward as it was futile. I tested at least six different locations on the tracks with consistent failure.
Even if it were easier to get stuck, simply stepping on the gravel guarantees a successful crossing every time. Is it too ridiculous to expect the average competent human being to handle this sort of personal responsibility? However, a need for concern does indeed arise when alcohol enters the equation. The police’s claim that intoxicated students pose a danger to themselves when crossing the tracks at night is in fact legitimate. This school’s history does include a small number of alcohol-related accidents that have resulted in the maiming of students on the tracks. In light of this information, it seems that the law must be changed so that it prohibits trespassing between the hours of 10 p.m. to 6 a.m., when students are most likely to be intoxicated and it is dark outside. If such a change in the law is not possible, then policemen should seek to enforce the law more prudently by refraining from ticketing outside the aforementioned time period. Such a readjustment would serve to satisfy another of the police’s claims, namely that the tracks are inherently dangerous places where muggers and rapists prefer to do their work during night hours.
If the police were handing out tickets late at night, the current system would be easier to swallow. But the reality is that students and Charlottesville residents alike have been ticketed for trespassing in the morning and afternoon, usually while en route to either class or work. Three of my good friends were targeted themselves one afternoon just before the start of school, all of which chose the $106 fine instead of twenty hours of community service. Perhaps I am being a bit sensitive, but I am offended that the city of Charlottesville questions my and others’ capacity to take care of ourselves. As a twenty-one-year-old man, it is insulting to have the police tell me that I am endangering myself by crossing railroad tracks sober during daylight hours.
In comparison to a myriad of other legal activities – riding in a car, crossing the street - railroad trespassing injuries/deaths are miniscule. 42,642 people died in automobile accidents nationwide in 2006, in comparison to 468 accidental railroad trespassing deaths nationwide in 2007. Interestingly, there were far more food choking deaths in 2007 as well. Statistically, you are more at risk of kicking the bucket while eating at Take It Away than you are while crossing the railroad tracks on the way home. Although the Police Department’s reasons for ticketing trespassers may be appropriate during nighttime hours, its recent enforcement during the morning and afternoon is both insulting and ludicrous when justified in terms of safety.
Jed Crumbo is a Cavalier Daily Viewpoint Writer.
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