Supervisors urged to act on rural railroads after deadly crash

The daughter of a couple that died in a recent accident at a rural railroad crossing between Greene and Clarksville asked the Butler County Board of Supervisors to look into possible traffic-control improvements at these types of crossings during the Butler County Board of Supervisors’ regular meeting on Aug. 2, 2022.

​Kelly Peuse spoke on behalf of her family that joined her in attendance speaking about railroad crossings like the one that claimed the lives of Joel and Rosemary Sult last month.

​In her statement, she noted that she went to the crash site and noted that the main line of the crossing has cross buck signs with lights and an audio alert, while the spur line that runs parallel to the south of the main line has crossbuck signs only with no light or audio alert. Neither have crossing arms.

​Peuse and her family felt that the infrequent traffic on the spur line made it even more unexpected when traffic on the spur line interferes with the roadway, and added that they felt the private spur lines should be required to meet or exceed the main line standards in the area.

​She referenced a Highway-Railroad Crossing Safety Program that, according to the DOT, helps with the cost of safety improvements at public highway-railroad grade crossings, funds which can be used for installing new crossing signal devices.

​Peuse urged the Supervisors to pass a resolution to look further into whether federal/state funding could be used to install traffic-control devices at the spur line.

​More than 100 in attendance at the supervisors’ Zoom meeting room and more calling the courthouse offered support of Peuse’s statement.