Its Against Ohio Law for Railroads to Block Crossings for More than Five Minutes

OHIO – We’ve all been a part of it here in Circleville the railroad stops and we wait, several of our crossings covered South Court Street, Pickaway and Main Street.  Our emergency services cut off from the South end for a unknown amount of time.

Laws in Ohio say, “It shall be unlawful for any railroad company, or any receiver or trustee operating a railroad, to obstruct for a longer period than five minutes the free passage on any street or road by standing cars or trains across the same.”

So why doesn’t Circleville fine Norfolk Southern and other train companies that stop trains dead in their tracks blocking most of the intersections in the town?  Well because Federal regulation off Railroads under the U.S. Constitution’s commerce clause supersede those laws and those laws do not define the time that trains can sit.

Judge James G. Carr of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio.  Made the decision after CSX Transportation, Inc. filed a lawsuit against the city of Defiance, claiming it shouldn’t have to pay fines for blocking roads there.

Judge Carr agreed with the railroad by concluding that Ohio law regulating the obstruction of roads by trains “is preempted by the Interstate Commerce Commission Termination Act of 1995,” and that the Defiance law director can no longer prosecute CSX for violations of the Ohio law.

So what will Circleville do to solve this issue? Thats the big question, and its a big question for lots of small towns that have railroad running through them.  A quick search and you will find lots of stories about the same thing.

A story from the toledo blade  talks about a Toledo Municipal Court Judge Francis X. Gorman cited that ruling when he dismissed 219 citations Toledo had brought against Norfolk Southern for blocked crossings.

Another story in Richland County and Crawford County where a train stopped in its tracks for almost 15 hours according to Telegraph Forum and the fine was overturned and local officials were told not to fine the Railroads.

So what do we do? How do we affect this change to stop railroads from blocking intersections for sometimes hours at a time?  We need to insist on change with our Ohio Government, like Mike Dewine and ask them to take a look at the laws and ask for Federal to define the law or to let Ohio govern our own railroads.  You can contact Mike DeWine at 614-644-4357 or Send him a email from this link