Rosedale’s 2 Miles Of Dangerous Railroad

Five crossings along a nearly 2 -mile stretch of railroad could be the most dangerous stretch of track in the country, according to an expert interviewed by WBAL television.

The stretch is the same area of Rosedale where a CSX freight train exploded on May 28 after colliding with a trash truck.

"I have never seen a corridor anywhere in the U.S. that has this many private crossings, this many crashes. There's no other place in the country that I've seen that is as dangerous as this one," said Bob Comer, a railroad crossing accident investigator interviewed by the television station.

The television station found reports on 31 accidents since 1975 at crossings at Contractors Road, Schaefers Lane, Todds Lane, Batavia Farm Road and a private road connected to Lake Drive.

All of the crossings except Todds Lane are private crossings with no lights, warning signals or gates. The Todds Lane crossing became a public crossing in 2010.

A preliminary report released by the National Transportation Safety Board in June found that the crossing at the site of the May 28 derailment had no warning lights or gates.

Two yellow stop signs at the crossing "had faded significantly, and both had been displaced from their original mountings." One of the signs on the northbound side of the double-tracked crossing was found hanging upside down facing away from the roadway, according to the report.

John J. Alban, owner of Alban Waste, was attempting to cross the tracks from the northbound side of Lake Drive in his Granite waste disposal truck at the time of the collision. Alban’s waste hauling company is located on the other side of the crossing at 1001 68th Street.

Alban’s truck was struck by the freight train, which was moving at 49 mph. The crash caused the train to derail. Two cars that were carrying chemicals subsequently caught fire and exploded.

Alban told police that he was talking on his cell phone using a hands-free device at the time of the accident and didn’t hear or see the train until just before it struck his truck. He was not wearing his seatbelt.

Baltimore County Police last month charged Alban with seven misdemeanor traffic violations including failure to stop at a railroad crossing.

CSX also filed a $225,000 civil lawsuit in federal court against Alban and his waste hauling company alleging negligence and a poor safety record.