I witnessed a very disturbing situation last weekend and wanted to share it with you.
Last week, Chelsea Police Chief Ed Toth warned residents about the dangers of crossing the tracks at places other than at Main Street or McKinley Street.
While I was waiting to pull out of my parking spot, where nearby were a large number of the above signs, I watched a woman and her two children approach the tracks near The Depot.
The mom kept walking toward the tracks and directly toward one of the signs.
One of her children read a sign, stopped and told her mom to do the same.
The mom’s response?
She told her daughter to ignore the signs, grabbed her by the arm and dragged both of her young children illegally across the tracks.
Holy cow, what kind of example is this setting?
I could not believe my eyes.
Or my ears.
In fact, I was so stunned, I was speechless. And when I regained my composure, they were too far away to say something.
But, I certainly hope that parents take the time to sit down with their children this week and explain these signs and make sure they understand how dangerous this behavior is.
Aside from the safety issues, it’s a misdemeanor, there’s a fine and it will go on their record.
And, I sure do not want to be writing about a tragedy at the railroad tracks in the future.
Take a look through the senior pictures in the Chelsea High School yearbook and you’ll see how many people just don’t understand this as a dangerous (or illegal) activity.
Frankly – I’m a lot more interested in doing something about people who disregard traffic lights, stop signs, speed limits: people who drive agressively and don’t use trun signals than I am about someone crossing the railroad tracks. There are a whole lot of greater ‘ills’ than crossing the tracks where it is convenient.
Unfortunately, having a parking lot running along both sides of a track just means you make it look like it’s okay to cross anywhere along the way. This should have been part of the planning process and the parking areas designed so that people could not cross. That will ultimately be what happens–I’ve seen it in many other locations where walls, rails, landscaping were used to prevent the crossing between two parking lots. As long as the space is open, it looks like you can cross–no matter how many signs get put up.