On Oct. 10, 2020, a southbound CN freight train struck the eastbound car of Jelisha Brumfield of Summit at the Carruth Drive railroad crossing, killing her and shoving her vehicle south almost to the Dixie Springs Road crossing.
On Nov. 20, a northbound Amtrak train clipped the rear of an eastbound 18-wheeler at the Dixie Springs Road railroad crossing, sending the trailer flying and destroying signs all around. Fortunately no one was seriously injured.
Both sites are rural, with no crossing arms. Though they had stop signs, railroad crossing signs and other warnings, the drivers apparently did not stop at the tracks.
Now Pike County supervisors, the Mississippi Department of Transportation and Canadian National Railroad are teaming up to make both crossings safer.
“I happened to be there within minutes of it happening,” District 4 Supervisor Jake Gazzo said of the Carruth Drive crash. “The car was going west, and when it hit, it hit right in the passenger door.”
After the November wreck, Gazzo contacted the MDOT, which did an analysis of both crossings and made recommendations for improved signage and other precautions.
At the Dixie Springs site, “MDOT’s working with us right now to get crossing arms,” Gazzo said. “They’re in the process of working with Canadian National.”
Gazzo doesn’t know CN’s time frame for the crossing arms, but said, “They’re on it.”
There are no immediate plans for arms at Carruth Drive, he said.
“My intent is, once that (Dixie Springs crossing) is improved enough, I’ll push for this one,” Gazzo said.
County road superintendent Wendell Alexander has ordered signs and reflective paint to beef up both places as well. County workers will repaint railroad crossing markings on the pavement and reposition signs with reflective paint, Alexander said.
“We repaint white stripes with glass reflective beads,” Alexander said. “That way it’ll pick your headlights up.
“The next couple of weeks we ought to have all the signs up and everything painted.”
The Dixie Springs crossing is located by the Dixie Packaging plastics plant. The crossing is complicated by having two sets of stop signs close together: one at the railroad and another at the intersection with Johnston Station Road 100 feet away.
While the space between the two stops seems tight for an 18-wheeler, Alexander measured the distance and said, “You’ve got plenty of room to stop over here without any problem at all.”
County workers will also trim hedge bushes on Johnston Station Road just south of Dixie Springs Road to improve visibility, Alexander said.
The Carruth Road crossing is in a sharp curve where it blends with Johnston Station Road.
“There’s going to be enough signs here for people to see there’s a crossing,” Alexander said.
“With the number of accidents here, we want to make everybody safer,” Gazzo said.
Though both crossings are rural, they get a lot of traffic, including 18-wheelers, local residents and Southwest Mississippi Community College students, Alexander said.
Although the old stop signs currently remain in place, occasional drivers passed over the railroad tracks without stopping while Gazzo, Alexander and other county workers were present. Alexander said he believes some drivers see an oncoming train but try to beat it.
