Cliff's Story: Keep on Living

As I celebrate my 30th year working in the rail industry, I have been reminiscing on all my experiences with CSX and its predecessors – some good, some not so good – but all part of a long railroad career.

My career started as a switchman, then conductor then – at the ripe old age of 22 – my childhood dream of being a locomotive engineer.

Despite the 3:00 a.m. phone calls, weekend and holiday hours and long periods away from home, I loved every minute of it. It's exciting, with each day bringing a new challenge and the opportunity to become a better engineer by developing self-management and critical decision-making skills.

It's also awe-inspiring to work with generations of locomotive engineers and conductors - listening to the older guys tell their experiences and how it wasn't the way it used to be. How we "young folks" would never have those experiences they had in the good 'ole days . . .

With one exception.

At some point in any career as a conductor or engineer, you will be involved in a crossing collision and someone will probably die.

As their stories progressed - and every single one had a story to tell - a certain look would come over their faces. The words are similar, but the eyes told the real story. That faraway look that one gets when reliving something in their past they would probably like to forget, but never will. They can tell you the details with phenomenal clarity on how the incident unfolded and what they did. Most won't share with you how they felt, though. As tough as this group is, we all have those places deep down inside where some things are better left where they are.

As Director of Public Safety Awareness for CSX Transportation, I now have the opportunity to work each and every day to educate the public on rail safety. It doesn't matter how good of a conductor or how good of a person you are. You can only stop a train so fast, and if someone is in the way, sometimes there's nothing you can do.

That doesn't mean you ever stop replaying it in your mind, wishing you were on a different shift, were a little later, a little earlier. Anyway, I feel very fortunate to be able to use the "Keep on Living" campaign to educate pedestrians and motorists so that we can avoid these terrible events.

Whenever there's a collision between a train and a pedestrian and motorist, the first person I think of is the person who was hit and his or her family. Then, I immediately think of the crew on the train because it's something they will never forget.