This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2017, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

It is far from rare for motorists to crash into the gate arms at TRAX or FrontRunner rail crossings.

The Utah Transit Authority sees "an average of one a day," according to Chief Safety Officer Dave Goeres.

More precisely, drivers crashed into 329 crossing gates last year, according to records The Salt Lake Tribune obtained through an open-records request.

Goeres said it costs his agency an average of $1,000 to replace or repair each crashed gate.

"So that's $320,000 a year," he said.

"We, as citizens of the Wasatch Front, are doing this to ourselves. We're costing ourselves money by being inattentive or being in a hurry," he said. "Give us that extra three to five seconds and then proceed through — saving $320,000 a year. We can do other things with that money."

It happens so often that each of UTA's repair trucks carries two replacement gate arms on board as they drive out each day, to allow for quick fixes.

Goeres said the vast majority of the gate crashes can be attributed to Utahns ignoring a state law that bans proceeding through a train crossing until lights stop flashing. Signs at some crossings repeat that warning.

Instead, "as soon as those gates start going up," Goeres said, "you see vehicles start going across."

Drivers don't understand that if they are right next to the gate, many vehicles won't clear it until the gate is almost vertical.

Another problem comes because crossing arms that start upward sometimes come back down quickly if a second train approaches from another direction. So if a driver has started through, Goeres explained, "the gate comes back down on top of their vehicle."

UTA also sees some motorists who simply are not paying attention and drive into lowered gates despite flashing lights and loud bells and alarms.

The Legislature two years ago passed a bill to erase the law requiring waiting for lights to stop flashing before proceeding through a crossing — but Gov. Gary Herbert vetoed it. Then-Sen. Scott Jenkins, R-Plain City, sponsored the bill, arguing that he and most people usually ignored that law, and complained that tickets for violations were costly and unnecessary.

Goeres said most drivers who hit gates take off without calling the agency. "However, we have a lot of cameras at our crossings, and if we can identify the vehicle, then our claims department will go after" drivers to pay the repair bill, and perhaps have UTA police ticket them.

The top five locations for gate crashes are:

• 3300 South on the Blue, Green and Red TRAX lines, 35 crashes last year.

• 2100 South on those three lines, 27 crashes.

• 300 West on the Green line, also 27 crashes.

• Redwood Road on the Red line in West Jordan, 17 crashes.

• 4000 West on the Red Line in West Jordan, 14 crashes.

Goeres said accidents are most common in the downtown Salt Lake City area, where Red, Blue and Green TRAX lines share tracks and trains pass about every five minutes at peak times. Because gates there are activated more often, drivers have more chances of hitting them.

Goeres says the gate crashes create major safety concerns for other street traffic and trains, even though broken gates trigger alarms at control centers — and repair crews and police are dispatched quickly.

"Help us protect the traveling public," Goeres said. "Don't cross until the red lights stop flashing."