Zapped crossing snarls traffic

Lightning is blamed after the gates lock down at the McMullen-Booth Road railroad crossing.

By EILEEN SCHULTE, Times Staff Writer
Published August 15, 2007

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CLEARWATER - Traffic on McMullen-Booth Road was locked up for about 90 minutes Tuesday after a pair of railroad crossing gates malfunctioned and got locked in the down position, officials said.

The CSX railroad crossing gates in both directions of McMullen-Booth, which carries an average of 70,000 cars and trucks a day, went down about 12:25 p.m., causing huge traffic backups.

"My business was going along pretty well until it suddenly emptied out and nobody came in," said Paul Coumoulos, owner of Paul's Chicago Pizza at 1500 N McMullen-Booth Road. "It shut down lunch."

Coumoulos said officials detoured southbound traffic to U.S. 19 via State Road 590 to help ease the congestion during the incident.

The problem was caused by "a lightning strike Monday night, which damaged the electronics in the crossing warning device," CSX spokesman Gary Sease said. But it took until early Tuesday afternoon for the damage to cause the gates to fail, he said.

CSX sent a technician to the scene and the gates were raised about 2 p.m.

Staff writer Eileen Schulte can be reached at (727) 445-4229 or at schulte@sptimes.com