Crash baffles friends

Steve Gaddum had a reputation for being a careful driver and a stickler for safety.

He’d buckle up to drive the half block from his home to the post office and wouldn’t move his car until every passenger was belted in, Spirit Lake Mayor Roxy Martin said.

A day after his death in a collision with a Union Pacific train on the Rathdrum Prairie, Martin and others who knew the 64-year-old city councilman struggled to make sense of what had happened.

Martin said she can’t imagine Gaddum trying to beat a train at a crossing or not wearing his seat belt.

“It’s pretty devastating to everyone here in town,” Martin said. “It’s just not been a good day.”

Thursday’s crash at a Meyer Road rail crossing was the latest in a series of train-versus-vehicle crashes on the Rathdrum Prairie.

Gaddum is the third person to die in less than a year at rail crossings on the prairie. At least two other collisions have been reported at prairie crossings in recent months, with drivers and passengers suffering minor injuries.

Idaho State Police Capt. Wayne Longo said the rash of crashes with trains is alarming, but he’s not sure what else authorities can do to prevent such accidents.

A regional initiative called Bridging the Valley aims to eliminate at-grade rail crossings between Spokane and Athol. There are 75 railroad-roadway crossings in that 42-mile corridor, and work on the first grade separation is scheduled to start this fall. The Spokane Regional Transportation Council, which is coordinating Bridging the Valley, has plans for 19 projects in all.

But it will be many years before the work is completed, Longo noted. “A lot of it comes down to personal responsibility,” he said. “You’re not going to beat a train.”

Longo said drivers often misjudge how close a train is or how fast it’s traveling.

“It’s ‘I think I can, I think I can, I can’t,’ ” he said.

The ISP has conducted numerous patrols to emphasize rail crossing safety, including placing troopers on trains to watch for drivers who don’t stop at a crossing or don’t yield to trains. In every instance, several tickets are issued.

State Police Cpl. Charlie Greear said the agency issued more than 50 tickets in an emphasis patrol earlier this month, prompting several of those drivers to complain.

“Our office was besieged by complaints about how we were trying to drum up revenue and how we were picking on the locals,” Greear said.

The crossing where Gaddum was killed was marked with a crossbar sign. It’s supposed to be treated the same as a yield sign, said Joe Arbona, spokesman for Union Pacific.

More than half of all crossing accidents occur at crossings where there are stricter safety controls, with both gates and flashing lights, Arbona said. “It’s a very frightening thing when you see folks who become impatient and try to beat trains,” he said.

Arbona said he has ridden trains and witnessed many close calls. “I’ve seen vehicles get stuck between the gates,” he said.

Both the conductor and engineer witnessed Thursday’s collision, Greear said. He has yet to review video from the train engine’s dashboard camera, which may reveal more details about how Gaddum ended up in the train’s path shortly before 3 p.m. There was a clear line of sight, Greear said, and the tracks are visible for a mile in the direction from which the train was traveling.

“I can’t believe he didn’t see the train,” he said. “The train was sounding its whistle for 30-something seconds prior to impact.”

There was no evidence that Gaddum hit his brakes, Greear said. Despite the insistence of his friends that he always wore a seat belt, Gaddum was not buckled at the time of the crash, the police investigation shows.

The train, moving at 47 mph in the 55 mph zone, took nearly a half mile to come to a stop after the crash.

Arbona said fatal crashes are difficult for train crews to deal with. “Our crews are extremely saddened when they have to deal with the fact you may have a family getting hurt because of a crossing accident,” Arbona said. “It really is painful to all of us here.”

Gaddum is survived by his wife, Becki. Martin said he had one son, two daughters, a stepdaughter and a stepson. The couple were preparing to leave for a Mediterranean cruise, Martin said.

In the 18 years he’d lived in Spirit Lake, Gaddum was actively involved in community groups, Martin said. He was elected to the City Council in 2006.

“Whenever there was a decision the council had to make, I always knew Steve thought about it and a lot of things he came up with I’d never thought of,” Martin said. “He always made the decision for the betterment of the community and for what he thought was fair.”