Train engine collides with SUV

WASILLA -- A Wasilla man escaped serious injury Monday after an Alaska Railroad train engine hit the Suzuki Sidekick he was driving at the railroad crossing on Knik-Goose Bay Road -- just south of the intersection of the Parks Highway and Main Street.

According to a press release from the Wasilla Police Department, the Sidekick's driver, Sergei Fedotov, 61, of Wasilla, received minor injuries to one knee and declined medical attention. The Frontiersman left a message for Fedotov and Wasilla attorney Marvin Clark contacted the newspaper to say that Fedotov had no comment at this time.

The Wasilla PD release said Fedotov did not realize a train was approaching when he entered the crossing. Fedotov's car stopped on the tracks and apparently attempted to back up. At that point, according to police, the Sidekick stalled and Fedotov was unable to restart its engine. The train hit the front end of Fedotov's vehicle and pushed it off the tracks.

The train consisted of two diesel engines heading north. No cars were attached at the time. Although Alaska Railroad Corp. officials did not know at press time the exact speed of the train, the speed limit on that section of the rail line is 25 mph.

The accident was brought up at city hall when Wasilla Mayor Sarah Palin gave her report to the city council at its meeting that night.

"The train won," Palin said.

"They always do," said council member Noel Lowe.

After the meeting Palin spoke briefly with the Frontiersman.

"Talk about a close call. This scares the crud out of me," Palin said.

There is plenty of evidence that the accident scared Fedotov as well.

"He had a standard transmission and I'm guessing that when he tried to put it in reverse he let the clutch out too fast," said Officer Ken Conn of the Wasilla PD, who interviewed Fedotov at the scene. The Sidekick's key was bent in an attempt to restart the car, according to Conn.

Alaska Railroad Corp. officials are conducting an investigation into the accident. ARRC security chief Dan Frerich said preliminary reports showed the crossing gates at Knik-Goose Bay Road were working properly Monday.

"We don't have anything that's inconsistent," Frerich said. "Everything tells us that the driver [Fedotov] drove onto the tracks before the gate came down and that he was stopped by traffic. That's when his vehicle stalled."

Railroad investigators use printed reports from the crossing gate's control box, which can be checked against a similar record on board the locomotive that keeps track of the train's speed and actions of the train engineers -- such as blowing the whistle or applying brakes. When necessary, railroad officers also use conventional surveying methods to investigate accidents, according to Frerich.

Crossing gate control boxes use sensors that are built into the rail line to determine the train's speed. It takes seven seconds for the gate to come down and the control box has the gate lowered 20 seconds before the train enters the crossing, no matter how fast the train is going, according to Frerich. All of this worked according to specifications, Frerich said, including the bells and flashing lights on the gate.

Traffic is often backed up at the intersection of Knik-Goose Bay Road/Main Street and the Parks Highway. Conn called it the busiest intersection in Wasilla. But Conn isn't convinced Fedotov was stopped by heavy traffic -- most area drivers seem to treat the railroad crossings with caution. Fedotov may have simply driven underneath the first gate as the gates were coming down.

"Most of the time when I'm at that intersection people are really good about giving you space," Conn said. "People are good about obeying the no-stopping-on-the-tracks law."

The accident was the first collision at an ARRC at-grade crossing this year, according to Frerich. ARRC records showed no collisions at crossings in 2001, Frerich said, and 22 collisions at crossings statewide over the last five years, with one fatality.

The Palin administration and the city council took up the topic about two years ago and the city has spent $31,000 on a railroad relocation study, which was completed in February.

"Our whole premise for the study has been the issue of safety -- not so much the economic development issues, but the safety issues," Palin said. "I think people know the city is on the right track. People do want the tracks moved, but they don't want them to be in their back yard."

Of 22 crossing accidents over the last five years, only two have been in the Mat-Su area, according to Frerich. Mat-Su has 11 at-grade crossings -- counting from the Glenn Highway crossing on the Palmer Hay Flats to South Church Road at Wasilla's west end, according to the study.

There is change on the way whether the railroad adopts a relocation plan or not.

The Glenn Highway crossing will be eliminated with the construction of the Glenn-Parks Highway Interchange project, which state Department of Transportation (DOT) officials have said will be finished by 2005.

The Palmer-Wasilla Highway extension -- also a DOT project -- includes a bridge over the tracks just south of the Palmer-Wasilla and Parks intersection.

That project should lighten traffic at the Knik-Goose Bay crossing. Members of the public and the contracting engineer for the study recommended that Wasilla officials ask the Mat-Su Borough School District require all school buses to use the new route instead of the Knik-Goose Bay crossing.

Many of the crossings in the Wasilla-funded study are outside city limits, as are parts of all five potential routes. Palin said that's an example of Wasilla taking the lead on an issue that affects everyone in the Valley.

Still, both DOT and ARRC are state entities and Wasilla has no direct power over either of them. When asked, Palin couldn't predict how soon at-grade crossings might be eliminated. She simply acknowledged that it's a difficult question.

"The state government is so bureaucratic, with so many layers of bureaucracy," Palin said. "Even as a mayor, I find it hard to figure out who to call to find out the status of any given project."