ACWORTH, Ga. — One of the few crossings that connect the two sides of Downtown Acworth is closing for good after a train collided with a vehicle stuck on the tracks last week.
Residents, like Lisa Mack and Ryan Blankenberger - who live and work by the tracks - say they have lost count of the times they have seen vehicles get stuck there.
"In the five years I’ve lived here, it’s been dozens, honestly," Mack said. "Local police generally do a really great job – they get here quickly. I just think it’s a poor use of resources."
The latest incident took place last Thursday.
The city said in a Facebook post over the weekend that they had come to the decision to permanently close the School Street crossing following the collision between a CSX train and a trailer that day.
"I’d say at least a couple of times a month, we have to re-route 18 wheelers from going across there because the signs just aren’t working," Blankenberger added. "They get stuck all the time. One guy drug a couple of hundred feet."
According to the post, the trailer and a transport truck both got stuck on the crossing.
The problem, the city outlined, is that as the railroad has raised the tracks over the year, creating a fairly steep grade where School Street crosses over the tracks. The steep grade resulted in a lot of instances where vehicles become disabled in the middle of the crossing, the post said.
The city said there have been 49 incidents of vehicles getting stuck on the tracks since 2018. The city alluded to recent derailments, such as the one in Ohio by a Norfolk Southern train that resulted in a controlled burn of chemicals over the town of East Palestine, as a consideration for their decision.
They said that CSX "does carry hazardous materials through our community and a derailment of a train carrying those materials could lead to a serious public health event."
Mack says they’ve worried something like that, could end up happening in the area.
"It's a little scary when you see a tractor-trailer on the tracks. I’ve had my daughter come say, 'Mom get me out of the shower' because you don’t know what they’re carrying and if they’re going to get hit and blow up. It's unnerving and it's frequent," Mack added.
(the video below shows a 2018 crash on the tracks in Acworth)
The city also said that when vehicles get stuck on the tracks, drivers get cited but the situations nonetheless require a diversion of resources from the police department and public works department for cleanup.
The crossing is one of only a few in Downtown Acworth, with the main one at Lemon Street and another further down at Smith Street. The city said it had collected public feedback and that about half of responding residents were for closing the crossing and half had been against it.
"After careful consideration of the feedback and arriving at the conclusion that the city has little influence over the Railroad’s operations, it has been decided to permanently close the School Street Crossing," the city said. "While there is an element of convenience that all of us will lose, ultimately safety was the deciding factor in the decision for closure. The city has exhausted all efforts with the Railroad to identify alternate crossing locations to supplement the closure with no success."