What happened from then on illustrates how limited the investigations of crossing accidents generally turn out to be.

According to the Federal Railroad Administration, railroads report sight obstructions in only a small fraction of crossing accidents.

And CSX has continued to have trouble with its reporting of crossing accidents.

The articles, photographs and audio interviews with survivors of crossing accidents are at nytimes.com/national.

Last Sunday's accident brought to eight the number of people who have been killed in crossing accidents in Wallingford since 1985, Sergeant Curran said.

Since 1980, train accident rates are down 60 percent, employee casualty rates down 76 percent, grade crossing accidents down 72 percent.

An average of 18 to 26 people over age 62 are killed every three months in crossing accidents, according to Department of Highway Safety statistics.

But the federal authorities rarely use those investigative powers in crossing accidents.

"We are not given information we need to thoroughly investigate," said Tom Mockbee, police chief in Waldo, Ark., who has investigated crossing accidents.

We will probably never eliminate all crossing accidents, but it is at least time to remove the big risks.