A state commission has approved work to install flashing lights, bells and gates for a long-problematic railroad crossing near Trinidad where five family members died in June after their minivan was struck by an Amtrak train.
Colorado’s Public Utilities Commission on Wednesday approved an application from Las Animas County to begin the construction. The improvements will also include constant warning circuitry and new cabin and concrete crossing pads.
“The purpose is to improve safety at the crossing,” said Terry Bote, spokesman for the commission.
Botte said Burlington Northern Santa Fe, which owns the track at the crossing along County Road 75.1, is responsible for the work. BNSF, the Colorado Department of Transportation and Las Animas County will negotiate a construction and maintenance agreement and file it with the commission.
CDOT said a $271,000 contract for the work has already been signed.
“Once that agreement is filed, work may begin,” Botte said. “Construction is expected to take (three to six) months.”
On June 26, a minivan driven by Stephen Miller, 32, was struck at the crossing. The impact killed his wife, 33-year-old Christine Miller, and three of their daughters, a 6-year-old, a 2-year-old and an 8-month-old. They were identified, respectively, as Abigail, Kathryn and Ellianna.
A fourth daughter, 4-year-old Heidi, was seriously hurt in the collision and transported by helicopter to Children’s Hospital Colorado where she was later released.
The crash happened just 12 days after Las Animas County officials voted to approve an application to the Public Utilities Commission seeking approval for safety improvements. The application, which the PUC says it received a day after the collision, noted that fatalities had happened before at the site.
The Denver Post found that the crossing, before the collision involving the Miller family, had been the site of at least six crashes, one of them fatal, since 1986 and had been eyed for safety improvements for years.
The crossing does not currently have gates or warning lights and is marked by just four crossbuck signs, according to authorities.
Federal data shows that of Colorado’s 2,186 railroad crossings, 972 of them — or about 45 percent — have only crossbuck railroad crossing signs to warn motorists. Another 202 have stop signs as their principal cautionary device.
