Local groups support Angels On Track fundraiser

Local busi­nesses are work­ing to keep the mem­ory of Amanda White — a young woman killed just days after she grad­u­ated from Welling­ton High School — alive.

On July 14, 2007, Amanda Marie White, 18, was killed from injuries sus­tained from a train/car col­li­sion on the tracks of Baker Road.

Res­i­dents of Lorain County can par­tic­i­pate in a fundraiser, along with local busi­nesses and WOBL/WDLW radio, for the Angels On Track Foun­da­tion, to pro­mote and per­pet­u­ate rail­road cross­ing safety in the county.

Vil­lagers can go to http://woblwdlw.com/sabrina.html to see a list of the local busi­nesses des­ig­nated “Halo Cross­ings.” Cit­i­zens can then stop in and donate any dol­lar amount at those loca­tions to the Angels On Track Foun­da­tion. Dona­tors will then earn a “Halo Cross­ing” sign with their name on it to be dis­played in the store.

“Amanda was an EMT, she had just passed her boards before the acci­dent. With spread­ing rail­road cross­ing safety, she can do what she always wanted to do, save lives,” said friend and fundraiser orga­nizer Sab­rina Settlemire.

The Angels On Track Foun­da­tion was pio­neered by Vicky and Denny Moore in 1997. Two years ear­lier, their son was killed at an un-lit, non-gated rail­road cross­ing that had already claimed the lives of eight peo­ple since 1975. After a judg­ment from the Ohio Supreme Court, the Moores used all of the set­tle­ment to start a foun­da­tion ded­i­cated to improv­ing rail­road cross­ing con­di­tions and edu­cat­ing good dri­vers about bad crossings.

“Sab­rina con­tacted our foun­da­tion last Octo­ber about doing a fundraiser for Angels On Track in the mem­ory of Amanda White. This is our first fundraiser, we don’t actively solicit. It was a good kick in the butt; we have new fundrais­ers planned now,” said Vicky Moore.

The Angels On Track Foun­da­tion wel­comes all the help they receive, as they have had to bat­tle sev­eral enti­ties to bring about change.

“We first went county to county, to the depart­ment of trans­porta­tion, talked to school bus dri­vers, and helped fund gate cross­ings. We put up 17 sets of gates total­ing $400,000.”

The early suc­cess of the foun­da­tion was short lived.

“We would give money for rail­road improve­ments, but then there wasn’t any fol­low through, just hands out ask­ing for money, so we dis­con­tin­ued the task force,” Moore said.

With some restruc­tur­ing and involve­ment from con­cerned peo­ple, the foun­da­tion has put up 28 gates at bad rail­road crossings.

Bad cross­ings can be reported to the foun­da­tion web­site, www.anglesontrack.org, or to the fed­eral rail­road administration.

“FRA is respon­si­ble for updat­ing infor­ma­tion on new and exist­ing cross­ings from the USDOT National High­way Rail Cross­ing Inven­tory Pro­gram: www.fra.dot.gov,” said Vicky Moore.

Lorain County res­i­dents can also look at each indi­vid­ual rail­road cross­ing on the Pub­lic Util­i­ties Com­mis­sion of Ohio web­site, http://gradecrossings.puco.ohio.gov. The site has spe­cific track pic­tures, cross­ing angles, if there are warn­ing devices and what types, areas to post com­ments, and train fre­quency for the whole county.

“Every­one in Welling­ton was all gun ho for the fundraiser, so much so that we’ve extended it through May 31,” Set­tlemire said.

Through action and enlight­en­ment, hope­fully the lone cross that still stands at the cross­ing where Amanda White was killed, will be the last of its kind.

by ADAM FOX

Enter­prise reporter

Posted by Adam Fox on May 17 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.