Following article appeared in the Shreveport (LA) Times on 8-22-08.
Motorcyclist dies trying to beat train at downtown crossing
By Melody Brumble
mbrumble@gannett.com
Jason Watkins watched a motorcycle rider make a fatal decision Thursday in Shreveport.
He was driving south on East Caddo Street near a Union Pacific railroad crossing about 6:20 p.m. when the cyclist, a man in his 60s, flew past him in the opposite direction trying to beat a train.
The man, whose name hadn’t been released, died probably from a crossing arm hitting him and him subsequently falling to the pavement, said Shreveport police Cpl. Gerald Fletcher, a crash investigator.
“I seen the man on the motorcycle and I seen the train,” Watkins said. “I don’t know if he was trying to go between the arms or if he didn’t see that crossing arm.”
The arm hit the man in the face. The impact knocked off his helmet and wrenched the crossing arm from its mounting.
“I seen him fly off his bike and land over by the curb,” Watkins said. “I called my wife. I said, ‘I think I just seen a man killed.’ I said, ‘Maybe it’s one of those movies filming.’”
With his wife’s encouragement, Watkins returned to the crossing to talk to police. That’s when he realized the rider was badly injured or dead.
“The train conductor went to try to turn him over and he was limp,” Watkins said.
The bike, a 2007 Harley Davidson Heritage model, kept rolling, ending up near East Caddo at Clyde Fant Memorial Parkway.
The train -— two engines and a handful of boxcars — was heading east at six miles an hour. The string of crossings from East Caddo to Festival Plaza at Lake Street in downtown Shreveport is a low-speed area for trains, Fletcher said.
He was unsure how fast the motorcyclist was going when he hit the bar. “Apparently, he was looking at the train and not the crossing,” Fletcher said. “Once he committed, he sped up.”