(The following story by Vickie Welborn appeared on the Shreveport Times website on June 29, 2010.)
MANSFIELD, La. Mansfield police today issued a ticket to Kansas City Southern for blocking the citys main railroad crossing for an extended period.
The KCS train stopped at the Polk Street crossing, blocking several other railroad crossings and stalling traffic all over the city. Traffic in Mansfield is already a headache for motorists because of the thousands of 18-wheelers and heavy machinery trucks that travel through each day because of some sort of connection to the oil and gas business.
This is becoming all too common of an occurrence in Mansfield, McCoy said. Each time the train blocks the tracks for an extended amount of time, a citation will be issued.
Capt. Joe Pratt cited the train conductor on a charge of train blocking crossing.
McCoy assures all tickets must be paid or they will appear in the Mayors Court.
Who is this "mccoy"? He is not identified. Is he the Editor of the newspaper? Is he a cop? Is he the mayor?
One thing fer shure is the conductor is gonna shove that ticket up someones ass. He definately isnt going to pay it. Federal law says rr gets ticket, not the crew.
Yes, they do, I've had that happen before. Knew of a engineer that was taken off the engine and to jail one time, train sat for a long time. Many apologies all around before they were done but I can't remember details, happened right here at the AFHT. Long time ago now.
Happened in Winchester WV, bout 3 years ago. Crew was arrested, but FRA called cops and told them they had to release the Engineer, Conductor, and Conductor Pilot. Co had to represent crew at hearing where Winchester found out they could not fine or detain any train crews for any reason, it is a Federal Matter. Winchester had a lot of egg on thier faces, and paid thier lawyers bigtime for the lesson. They wont be trying to delay or cart off a train crew anytime soon.
