MARION CO. — Railroad crossings can already be a little bumpy, but what about when that bump becomes a little ridiculous?
Railroad companies themselves own the actual crossing along a road and a few feet on either side of the tracks. They are responsible for fixing things like potholes or uneasy surfaces. But one community says the rail companies are not fixing an issue that's been there for years.
It's one of the busiest roads in Beech Grove, it doesn't look like much but just wait until a car or truck drive over the top of it, and it is an entirely different story.
Myron Freeman has been familiar with these tracks for about 53 years.
"It was an old two-lane road actually, it used to zig-zag across at connection," Freeman, who is concerned about the rough railroad crossing, said. "But over the years, my goodness, the traffic has increased."
Cars, trucks, buses, and more drive right down Emerson Avenue near downtown Beech Grove every day.
Freeman says the tracks are getting beat up. And for drivers coming across the railroad crossing, it's more than a little bumpy (check out the video above).
RTV6 went out to the tracks on Monday and watched vehicle after vehicle bounce as they drove over the tracks. Some cars even made dangerous swerves.
"You'll see somebody coming through and then all of a sudden they slam on their brakes because they see it's rough," Freeman said.
CSX Railroad owns the crossing, and Freeman says the passage itself has been an issue for a while. He claims it got awful about four years ago.
"It could've easily been repaired, and when I started running into problems getting ahold of CSX, that's when I really started, you know, 'hey we really have to do something about this,'" Freeman said.
Freeman says he ended up with expensive repair bills due to the railroad.
"I ended up with three broken motor mounts on my own car, and I slow down," Freeman said. "I don't know how the motor mounts got broke, and I'm not blaming CSX, but just watching people going across these tracks."
Freeman started making calls.
"Beach Grove mayor, city mayor of Indianapolis, all of them said it was somebody else's jurisdiction," Freeman said. "Everybody wants to point to somebody else to get it done, and it's not going anywhere."
However, those calls never seem to go anywhere, and calls to CSX didn't do anything to get it fixed either.
Freeman's message to CSX:
"Would you look into it and get back to me?"
CSX told RTV6 that they are going to look into this crossing and the newsroom will go out to make sure it gets fixed.
