Soon after Aurora Police released video of a crash from Tuesday morning involving a van and the RTD A line train, people started commenting on Facebook pointing out that a gate did not appear to be working properly.
The thing is – it is working the way it is intended.
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The crossing arm people are wondering about, which is on the south end of the southbound side of the crossing at Chambers Road, is not an entrance arm, it is an exit arm.
The exit arm’s intent is to keep wrong way traffic from entering the crossing. Seconds after the crash, the gate goes down, then goes straight back up again. To the untrained eye, it would appear that gate is not working.
There is a sensor in the pavement of the intersection. If it senses the weight of a vehicle in the intersection, the exit arm will not go down, according to RTD so a car could escape the intersection if needed.
"The exit gates remain up to allow it to evacuate and our systems are timed with the local cities that the actual green light will turn in front of them to let them evacuate further,” said RTD spokesman Nate Currey. “It'll stop cross traffic and allow them to exit that intersection safely."
There are Union Pacific freight tracks and A line tracks at the crossing. The crossing gate arms cover both sets of tracks.
RTD is currently operating the A line under a waiver that is scheduled to expire in April.