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Friday, September 3, 2010 | Serving Del Rio and Val Verde County: Since 1929
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Railroad crossing on court agenda Monday
Published January 7, 2007
A railroad crossing where a woman’s truck was hit by a train last month will be the focus of a discussion by county commissioners court Monday.
The January regular term meeting of Val Verde County Commissioners Court begins at 9 a.m. Monday in the old county court-at-law building, 207 E. Losoya St.
Leading the discussion of the railroad crossing will be County Commissioner Precinct 1 Ramiro V. Ramón, in whose precinct the railroad crossing is located.
On Dec. 21, a Del Rio woman, Maria Calderon, was severely injured when a Union Pacific train struck her Chevy Suburban at a railroad crossing at the Rancho Del Rio entrance to the Escondido Estates area of the county.
Calderon is still in University Hospital in San Antonio, where she was listed in stable condition Friday, according to a spokesman for the hospital.
“I want the court to authorize me to start negotiating with the Texas Department of Transportation about this crossing. The whole thing has to go through TxDOT, starting with a traffic count, and I’d like the court to authorize me to start talking to TxDOT so maybe we can speed up the process a little,” Ramón said Friday.
Ramón said he would like to see crossing arm-barricades at the Rancho Del Rio rail crossing, as well as another rail crossing into the Escondido Estates area west of the crossing where Calderon’s Suburban was hit by the train.
“I’d like to see this done especially because of the fact that there are school buses full of children that go through there. I think it’s imperative that we start moving on this as soon as possible,” Ramón said.
Ramón added he has visited the two rail crossings several times since Calderon’s accident and has charged that he has personally witnessed trains passing the crossings without first sounding their warning horns.
Ramón said Friday the cost of installing the movable-arm barricades at both crossings would cost “a couple of hundred thousand dollars.”
“It is my understanding that TxDOT would pay for them to be installed and then the railroad would be responsible for maintaining them,” Ramón said.
The court Monday has a number of other items on its agenda, including personnel matters and a closed-door executive session with the county attorney.
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