3 Kansas City Star reporters awarded for investigation on dangers of railroad crossings
An investigation by The Kansas City Star and three of its reporters has received the 2023 Casey Feldman Award for Transportation Safety Reporting.
Investigative reporters Judy L. Thomas and Laura Bauer and former Star reporter Kevin Hardy documented the dangers of railroad crossings in 12 states that have the most miles of public track.
Their investigation — “Hundreds Crash at Dangerous Rail Crossings That Should Have Been Fixed. Whose Fault Is It?” — found that 46% of deadly collisions occur in rural areas or small towns. Their reporting also showed that flashing lights and gates can reduce collisions, but many railroad crossings don’t have them.
According to their findings, railroads also pay little for improving safety at crossings, instead relying on government funding to pay for upgrades, and for labor and lodging costs for railroad workers to complete the upgrades.
The award, for which Thomas, Bauer and Hardy received the first-place prize, honors Casey Feldman. The Fordham University journalism student was killed by a distracted driver in 2009.
EndDD.org, created by the Casey Feldman Memorial Foundation to end distracted driving, sponsored the award along with the journalism department at the University of Colorado Boulder’s College of Media, Communication and Information.
The New York Times and reporters Peter Eavis, Mark Walker and Niraj Chokshi received an honorable mention for their story that explored staffing issues at Norfolk Southern and declining safety ratings that predated the derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, in February 2023.
