The death of an Eaton High School student is propelling a quick change in the Weld County town.
Kennedi Ingram, 18, was hit by a train while driving Tuesday at the railroad crossing near 5th Street. She's the second person who was killed in nearly a year at that same location. In both instances, there was nothing more than a stop sign and a railroad crossing sign marking the tracks.
Saturday morning, the town's mayor, Kevin Ross, announced the road would be blocked off to traffic entirely.
"I couldn't in good conscience allow that road and this intersection to continue to be open," Ross said. "I sat here the other night after a train went through and witnessed five or six cars not stop at this intersection like they should've -- even after losing two lives."
After Dallas Duran was killed last year, Ross said the town was looking to install flashing lights at the crossing. After Kennedi's death last week, they're now looking at getting crossing arms, which he said could take a while.
"Getting through those typical processes can take 16 months," he said. "They're trying to speed that up now and get it done in hopefully six to eight months for this intersection."
In hopes of moving the process along quickly, a petition to "get a real signal" is circulating through Eaton. There's a version of it online people are signing as well as hard copies that currently 31 businesses have on their front desks.
"We've already got a lot of signatures and we don't have the only one here in town, so signatures are building up all over the place," Casse Strole, a cashier at U-Fill-It, said.
The petition will be presented at a town board meeting on Thursday, Ross said. He'll then send it to CDOT and Union Pacific Railroad in hopes of persuading them to get the project done as early as possible.
