Are Ross County rail crossings safer than the rest of the state?

CHILLICOTHE — Ross County is home to 17 railroad crossing locations. When driving over these rails do you ever stop to think about how safe it is?

Luckily, the Rail Crossing Community Impact Index from the Ohio Rail Development Commission has all the information you need. The index rates crossings based on public importance, redundancy, delay to road users and safety. The index also generates scores for motorized, nonmotorized and truck traffic.

According to the Ohio Rail Development Commission scores can provide a way to identify areas with the most significant impact and help prioritize locations during the project selection process. The tool also provides important information to support rail improvement program development such as discretionary grant funding applications.

“The Rail Crossing Community Impact Index will be a significant asset for the Rail Commission, its partners, and the public,” said Matthew Dietrich, Executive Director, Ohio Rail Development Commission. “By providing a publicly available tool to measure the relative impact of blocked at-grade crossings, all users will benefit from the information provided for a specific crossing or group of crossings, and how they measure up in relation to the statewide average.”

Statewide the motorized data for the over 5,600 crossings in 2023 came to an average of 2.36 in public importance, 3.20 in redundancy, 1.98 in delay to road users and 2.66 in safety.

In Ross County five of the crossings feature crossbucks as a warning device, three feature flashing lights and nine feature lights and gates. The crossings average around 2.19 in public importance, 3.03 in redundancy, 2.79 in delay to road users and 2.78 in safety.

On average the busiest crossing is on South Paint Street, which sees an average of 5,039 vehicles crossing daily. In comparison, the least used crossing is on Delano Road and receives an average of 83 vehicles daily.

Shelby Reeves is a reporter for the Chillicothe Gazette. You can email her at SReeves@gannett.com or follow her on Twitter @Shelby_Reeves_

This article originally appeared on Chillicothe Gazette: How safe are the railroad crossings you drive on everyday?