Investigators: Still no gates at dangerous railroad crossings

STAMFORD, Conn. (WABC) -- A disturbing Eyewitness News investigation reveals that 9 railroad crossings in the Tri-State area have no gates, just lights.

This despite many accidents, including some that have been fatal.

As we investigated these non-gated crossings, we discovered that it's only after lives are lost or people are seriously injured that gates are installed.

And, in some cases, even after there's blood on the tracks, this basic safety measure isn't taken.

Only 19 years old, Jausheema Perkins' life ended in 2013, days after a Metro North train travelling 50 miles an hour struck her car at a railroad crossing near Danbury.

The crossing had no gates.

"It won't go away, it'll never go away. You don't plan to bury your children," said her father, James Perkins.

Months after his daughter and her boyfriend were killed, the state installed gates at the crossing. Jausheema's father says those gates would have saved her life.

"Obviously it's a safety hazard. They have them up now, that's after the fact, but it's fatal, it's a tragedy," said James.

Less than 20 miles away, there's a Metro North crossing in Stamford that still does not have gates despite being the most dangerous crossing in Connecticut.

Our investigation has found since 2003, there have been five accidents there, the most at any Metro North grade crossing.

No deaths in the accidents but plenty of people injured, among them Drew Choos, shown on the ground near his crushed car. His father Lance says his son never saw the flashing lights.

"You're convinced that a gate?," we asked Lance. "No question about it, you wouldn't have a single accident there if you had gates," he said.

Our camera captured the obvious danger weeks ago when a driver either didn't see or ignored the flashing red lights and drove through the crossing, seconds later a train blew by.

We've learned that just days ago work got underway on installing gates at the dangerous Stamford crossing after seven years of back-and-forth wrangling between the state and a private landowner, and 5 separate accidents.

"It bordered on negligence, I thought. They've been lucky no one has been killed there," said Choos.

Unfortunately, that is not the case at another notorious non-gated crossing. This one, we found in New Jersey in the small town of Millington.

No gate there even though more than 50 New Jersey commuter trains go by daily and even though it was the site of a fatal accident back in 2004.

There are only two other non-gated crossings in the entire state, but one leads to a dead end, the other to private property.

But why no gate here on Main Street in Millington when a crossing 100 yards away has a gate and when one person has already been killed?

"There should be a gate there," said Lorretta Bitici of Berkeley Heights. "It would be safer, I would feel safer driving . (splice) Sunny days like today, you can't see the lights I'd feel safer if there were gates."

In New York, there are five grade crossings with no gates, but they're all on freight rail lines in areas where the trains go about 10 miles per hour.

We should note that the gates at the Stamford Crossing are supposed to be operational sometime next month.