MACON, Ga. — Last Friday at the crossing on Forsyth and Tucker Road, 76-year-old Cheryl Rawls died after her SUV got stuck on the train tracks and was struck by a train.
Now, some people are calling for the closure of the intersection at the Macon railroad crossing. People say there's just not enough room for cars on either side of the crossing.
Macon-Bibb Commissioner Valerie Wynn says it causes significant traffic backups with only a handful of cars able to pass at a time. She believes moving forward, the county should conduct a traffic study that could lead to the crossing being shut down.
"If you closed it, then people would stop coming across there and go down to the other railroad crossing at the other end of Wesleyan or go up towards where The Fresh Market is up that end and come underneath the railroad track," Wynn said.
Ashley Smith says after hearing about the deadly crash, changes need to roll through the Tucker Road crossing.
“It's such a small space to be a safe area, you have to keep moving through the intersection whenever you're going through it and there's not really a safe stopping point at that spot because you're on the tracks pretty much no matter what,” Smith said.
On the Central Georgia Focus 'Ask Mayor Miller' segment for November, Macon Mayor Lester Miller told us he is open to working with the right groups to talk about closing the crossing.
“After this tragic incident happened there, we can see a possibility," Miller said. "I'm certainly open to having a conversation with the railroad about closing that and still having to control the traffic in that area will still be a challenge."
Norfolk Southern says that in the meantime it's important that drivers avoid stopping on railroad tracks and stay outside the white lines under the crossing arms.
Norfolk Southern Railway also told us they've been working with communities across the country to get dangerous crossings closed down. But they added closing the Tucker-Forsyth crossing would be up to local authorities.