SUMTER, S.C. — Sumter residents are concerned about a deteriorating railroad track that’s causing issues for drivers and people who live near the crossing. News 19 is on your side, buckling up and getting answers.
A railroad crossing in between Kingsbury Drive and Club Lane on Stadium Road has been causing a bumpy ride for drivers, and a headache for neighbors.
“We can’t get it fixed and we need to get it fixed,” Khristopher Lester says.
Lester tells me he’s lived near the crossing for the past 18 years.
“People use this road to go to to the dump and when they go to the dump, they have stuff on the back of their truck and it drops all kind of stuff fin the road and I'm left picking the stuff up because I’m right here and I don’t want anybody to be running over this stuff,” Lester explains. “The issue is the railroad track. When cars come up and down the railroad track, they come across, when they haul things, it dumps things down on the ground and we have to pick it up, tear up the railroad track.”
From tree limbs to nails and tools, Lester says he’s constantly picking up items. Also, he’s worried about damage to vehicles that cross it.
“Cars got to slow down to go across the track, that holds up traffic, and some people don’t slow down,” Lester shares. “But if you want to keep your car, you’ll slow down.”
It’s a crossing that is highly trafficked.
“It’s super busy,” resident Lakin Powell says.
Powell has lived in the area, near an elementary and a high school, for the past two years.
“We have Kingsbury up the road and Sumter High also down the road so a lot of school traffic in the morning so it gets pretty congested especially between 6:45 and 8 o’ clock,” Powell details.
With this constant traffic, residents have noticed it’s causing wear and tear on the crossing.
“I talked to CSX and they say, ‘Well, we don’t have enough people complaining about it.’ But if you come out and look at the railroad track, the railroad track is bad,” Lester shares. “It makes me feel like they don’t want to fix it and they need to fix it.”
News 19 reached out to the railroad company, CSX, last month. The company did not say whether they had received calls from residents recently to report the area, although the company does say it’s now working to address the issue.
“CSX works hard to address crossing concerns in a timely manner. We notified our engineering team and temporary cold patch was installed,” a CSX representative writes. “They will continue to monitor the conditions at the crossing. Many factors affect the pace and scheduling of crossing repairs, such as weather, equipment and resource availability. CSX invests heavily in infrastructure maintenance to ensure the safe, reliable movement of trains, and the safety of our employees and the communities where we operate.”
While this is a step in the right direction, residents like Lester tell me they want a permanent solution.
“My thing is just go ahead and fix it and it might last another 10 more years,” Lester shrugs.
There is also a nearby crossing on Pitts Road that residents say has the same issue, which CSX tells News 19 it is looking into.