Sources: State Senators Facing Retribution After Voting Against Bill That Would Fine Trains

A state House of Representatives bill designed to prevent trains from blocking intersections was derailed in a Senate committee. Now Senate sources say, lawmakers who voted against it are feeling the wrath of the bill’s author. 

Members of the Senate Transportation Committee unanimously voted the railroad crossing bill down. Now it appears they’re the ones getting railroaded.

Read Related Story: Bill Proposed To Fine Trains That Block Traffic In Oklahoma

House Bill 2474 would fine railroad companies $10,000 for blocking an intersection for longer than 10 minutes. It passed overwhelmingly in the House of Representatives, but every member of the Senate Transportation Committee voted against it.

“I saw 16 other states had passed similar legislation, 16 other states got sued and 16 other states lost those lawsuits in the district court of appeals. It was for me another case of Oklahoma trying to take on the federal government and getting into a costly lawsuit,” said Senator Bill Coleman (R) Ponca City, who is on the transportation committee.

Representative Jon Echols Majority Floor Leader responded, “What they are saying is five-hour delays are OK. What they are saying is putting peoples’ lives at risk, which by the way doesn’t happen in other states. We don’t see these same levels of delays in other states.”

Coleman says he doesn’t believe blanket legislation is the answer.

“First thought that came into my mind, can emergency management communicate with the railroads in some way to say hey we’ve got a call you need to move,” said Coleman.

Echols said, “Unfortunately, in the state of Oklahoma we just bowed to the train lobby, which is filled with out of state multinational corporations. Other states have much stricter regulations that we do. To say you voted against it is a cop out.”

The bill was written by House Speaker Charles McCall.

Now some bills authored by the senators who voted down the railroad bill either aren’t being heard or are being moved to a different committee where the speaker has more control.

McCall insists this isn’t revenge.

“I think it’s a long stretch to say there’s any type of retribution at this time. There are no Senate bills that have been killed as a result of their decision yesterday on this measure,” he said.

McCall says his railroad bill isn’t dead yet, and he plans to resubmit it to the Senate for consideration.