TRAINS: Horns vs. health

I’ve been vocal about the train horn issue in Post Falls. For me the issue boils down to: Are we saving lives with the horns or destroying them?

Union Pacific doesn’t want the liability that goes with a Quiet Zone. Some of my critics will assert that it’s simply too dangerous to allow the trains to sneak up on people. They cite fatal accidents along the line, there’s just one problem, the people that have died have done so with the horns blaring.

The trains were here first – got it. They rolled through empty plains and you could shoot buffalo from the car windows. But it’s not 1911 anymore.

“We shouldn’t be allowing greedy developers to build houses near tracks” – heard ya. How big should the buffer zone be around rail lines? A mile? Two miles? Let’s not make housing so scarce almost no one can own one.

Mayor Jacobson would be serving his constituents well to move forward with continued negotiations for a quiet zone. This is a good little city, and should not be treated as an industrialized wasteland where life is devalued by a dangerous din.

LINDA COOK

Post Falls