THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, June 3, 1995 TAG: 9506030292
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY ANNE SAITA, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: MOYOCK LENGTH: Long : 120 lines
On June 4, 1991, a drive along a popular shortcut for Moyock motorists cut short the lives of 17-year-old Charles ``Chuckie'' Quinn Jr. and his boss, Timothy Michael Temple.
The two were driving home from work when Temple's pickup collided with a train at Tulls Creek Road railroad intersection, which was then surrounded by foliage and marked only by a pole crossing sign.
On Sunday afternoon, friends and relatives will gather at that railroad crossing. The intersection is now equipped with electronic bars, bells and lights that Quinn's family purchased with $75,000 from a railroad settlement.
``You'd have to break through the crossbars now to get in front of the train,'' said Charles Quinn, who lost his only son in the accident.
A dedication is scheduled for 4 p.m. Sunday at the recently constructed crossing. A green memorial sign bearing the names of Quinn and Temple will mark the spot.
``This is totally unprecedented for private citizens to have donated the funds for the sole purpose of upgrading the safety at a dangerous railroad grade crossing,'' said Robert E. Zaytoun, the Quinns' lawyer, who will travel from Raleigh for Sunday's ceremony.
Joyce and Charles Quinn, along with their 14-year-old daughter, Poppy, had wanted Chesapeake & Albemarle Railroad Company Inc., to provide the new crossing as a condition of their 1994 settlement.
When that option fell through, the family decided to donate part of the settlement to the North Carolina Department of Transportation to pay for the gate. The family asked that the exact amount they were awarded not be disclosed.
``My wife and my daughter's conviction was that no matter what the settlement was, they wanted a railroad crossing,'' said Quinn, 39.
``They didn't want any other teenagers ever dying because of that. My wife said she never wanted to see any other parents go through that.''
Quinn was in Saudi Arabia, refurbishing equipment used by the military during the Persian Gulf War, when he received word that his son had been killed.
Quinn's son and Temple, both sheet-rock hangers, had left work early so that Temple could help prepare for his son's third birthday party. Chuckie, who had dropped out of Currituck County High School, was expecting a turkey dinner when he got home.
A train routinely traveled between Chesapeake and Edenton and generally crossed the Tulls Creek intersection in Currituck County by noon. No one saw the collision. But witnesses heard the crash and rushed to the scene.
``It killed my son instantly,'' Quinn said. ``From what I understand, . . . he (Temple) took, like, four deep breaths - and that was it.''
Jeff Forster, general manager of the Ahoskie-based Chesapeake & Albemarle railroad, maintained Friday that his company was not responsible for the accident.
``We've had a number of grade crossing accidents just like any railroad company across the country,'' Forster said. ``We're very active in trying to prevent accidents at railroad crossings, . . . and we have greatly reduced the amount of accidents.''
Forster said his company is an active participant in ``Operation Lifesaver,'' an educational program promoting safety at railroad grade crossings.
This weekend's ceremony, expected to last about 30 minutes and include local dignitaries and an NCDOT official, won't be the last time the Quinns will publicly recount their ordeal.
On Tuesday, the couple will travel to Washington to speak before the Federal Rail Administration, which wants to shift some railroad-crossing responsibility from private companies to local and state agencies.
The Quinn family opposes the proposal because, they say, it would let railroad companies off the hook when accidents occur.
In 1993, nearly 4,900 collisions of vehicles and on-track railway equipment occurred in the United States, resulting in more than 600 deaths and 1,800 serious injuries, according to the FRA and U.S. Department of Transportation.
Raleigh attorney Patricia L. Wilson Medynski said Chesapeake & Albemarle railroad has been involved in 12 crossing collisions since it began operating in 1990. Five people have been killed in those wrecks, she said.
Forster, contacted at his home, disputed the number of accidents. He said he could not, however, provide a specific number from memory.
The FRA believes that state and local governments, rather than railroads, have the diagnostic tools to better select which highway-railroad crossings should be upgraded, consolidated or closed.
``Both North Carolina and Virginia currently have laws which require rail companies to maintain safe conditions where their tracks cross at public grade,'' said Medynski. ``This regulation, if adopted, would render meaningless long-standing state law.''
It also would make it more difficult for injured people or the survivors of those killed to be compensated, she said.
But Bruce George, who oversees the FRA's crossing and trespassing prevention program in Washington, said railroads would still maintain the crossings.
The proposed change ``has to do with how warning devices and sites are selected. It has nothing at all to do with maintenance. The railroads would still be responsible,'' George said.
North Carolina Attorney General Michael F. Easley is among those opposed to the FRA-initiated proposal. He said state and local governments should not bear the liability burden in train-auto accidents.
Quinn, who owns a Grandy screen printing and embroidery shop with his wife, said he is nervous about testifying before a federal board. But he also is determined to be heard.
``Hopefully, we will be able to make some kind of an impact. I don't see why the responsibility should be on the shoulders of the state when the railroad companies are making money off of it.''
Until Tuesday, however, Quinn and his family won't think much about testifying before the federal panel. This weekend, they'll focus on the Tulls Creek Road dedication.
``I think it's going to make me kind of sad. But I'm going to be happy to know he didn't die in vain,'' Quinn said of his son. ``Something good will come out of it. It shouldn't happen again.'' ILLUSTRATION: ``This is totally unprecedented . . . ''
[Color Photo]
DREW C. WILSON
Staff
Charles Quinn, center, and his wife, Joyce, right, and their
daughter, Poppy, pose at a railroad grade crossing where their son,
Charles ``Chuckie'' Quinn Jr., and his boss, Timothy Michael Temple,
died in a truck-train collision on June 4, 1991.
by CNB