5 BNSF Filings, 3 Phoenix Crossings, Same Phrase

Between November 2017 and January 2026, BNSF Railway Company filed at least five Form 6180.57 accident reports across three Phoenix Subdivision grade crossings using the same narrative phrase: “AUTO PRECEDED THE GATES.” All three crossings sit within a 4.2-mile urban arterial corridor in west Phoenix. The Federal Railroad Administration inventory revised July 2025 confirms that none of the three has channelizing medians, four-quadrant gates, or the supplementary safety measures specified by 49 CFR Part 222.

The Three Crossings

The phrase AUTO PRECEDED THE GATES doesn’t appear in BNSF Form 6180.57 narratives at the other 79 at-grade public crossings on the Phoenix Subdivision in Arizona. It appears at three specific crossings.

Bethany Home Road, DOT 025590V, MP 185.353

On December 29, 2023, BNSF filed Form 6180.57 with the narrative:

“R-SWE0036-29C PULLING ON OTHER THAN MAIN TRACK STRUCK AN UNOCCUPIED AUTO STALLED ON A HGX EQUIPPED WITH GATES. THE AUTO PRECEDED THE GATES. NO DERAILMENT. NO HAZMAT RELEASED. USER’S AGE UNKNOWN.”

Osborn Road, DOT 025428F, MP 188.878

BNSF filed twice at this crossing in eight months.

On May 1, 2025:

“RSWE003301 LIGHT POWER STRUCK A TRAILER HOOKED TO A PICKUP AT A HGX EQUIPPED WITH GATES. THE AUTO PRECEDED THE GATES AND WAS STOPPED. NO DERAILMENT. NO HAZMAT RELEASE. NO INJURIES. USER’S AGE UNKNOWN.”

On January 9, 2026:

“Y-PHX3021-08A LIGHT POWER STRUCK AN AUTO STOPPED IN THE FOUL OF A HGX EQUIPPED WITH GATES. AUTO PRECEDED THE GATES. NO DERAILMENT. NO HAZMAT RELEASE. USER’S AGE UNKNOWN.”

Thomas Road, DOT 025617C, MP 189.580

The crossing where the phrase has the longest documentary history. BNSF filed using it on three occasions.

On November 1, 2017, more than six years before the active warning gate retrofit that completed at this crossing in June 2024:

“EASTBOUND AUTO PRECEDED GATES AND WAS STRUCK BY VCLOPHX 1 29 A, WHICH RESULTED IN AN INJURY TO DRIVER.”

On June 15, 2025, after the retrofit:

“YPHX203115 PULLING ON SINGLE MAIN TRACK STRUCK AN AUTO THAT PRECEDED GATES AT A HGX. DRIVER TOOK OFF. NO DERAILMENT. NO HAZMAT RELEASE. NO INJURIES.”

On August 7, 2025:

“YPHX203107 PULLING ON SINGLE MAIN TRACK STRUCK AN OCCUPIED AUTO AT HGX EQUIPPED WITH GATES. AUTO PRECEDED GATES. NO DERAILMENT. NO HAZMAT RELEASE. NO INJURIES.”

The Four-Mile Corridor

The three crossings span a 4.227-mile arterial corridor on the BNSF Phoenix Subdivision in west Phoenix:

The corridor carries combined annual average daily traffic above 100,000 vehicles per the most recent ADOT and Maricopa Association of Governments AADT counts referenced in the FRA inventory.

What the Federal Framework Specifies

The Federal Railroad Administration treats the failure mode BNSF documents in this phrase as a quiet-zone supplementary-safety-measure question. Under 49 CFR Part 222 Appendix A, three engineering responses address the gate-timing failure that the phrase describes:

1. Channelizing medians: raised concrete or curbed barriers on the centerline of the roadway, extending back from the crossing, that physically prevent vehicles from going around lowered gate arms.
2. Four-quadrant gates: gate-arm configurations that close all four corners of the crossing simultaneously rather than only the two through-traffic lanes.
3. Supplementary safety measures including wayside horns, pedestrian-specific gates, and additional traffic-control signaling at the crossing approaches.

The Federal Highway Administration’s Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices Part 8 specifies the engineering criteria for each.

Per the Federal Railroad Administration inventory last revised July 2025, none of the three crossings on this corridor has any of these mitigations installed.

Camelback Road

Camelback Road sits between Bethany Home and Osborn at milepost 186.760. Camelback Road has 13 reported Form 6180.57 accidents on the BNSF filing history. The crossing has not been retrofitted with active warning gates. BNSF’s filings describe drivers stopped in the foul of the crossing, drivers who fled the scene after impact, and at least one filing in which the narrative states the driver “deliberately disregarded crossing warning devices.”

The corridor that has the three documented AUTO PRECEDED THE GATES filings has a fourth crossing inside the same span without active warning gates at all.

What Form 6180.57 Is, And What It Isn’t

Form 6180.57 is the Federal Railroad Administration’s Highway-Rail Grade Crossing Accident or Incident Report. Railroads operating on the general rail system file it after any reportable accident at a grade crossing. The records are public under the Federal Railroad Safety Act and are searchable through the FRA Office of Safety Analysis.

Federal law, 49 USC 20903, restricts the admissibility of Form 6180.57 reports in damages litigation. The form itself isn’t admissible. The underlying facts (the dates, the equipment status, the witness accounts) are admissible through other discovery channels.

For journalism, Form 6180.57 is a public record of what a railroad has written about its own accidents. The phrase AUTO PRECEDED THE GATES quoted at each of the three crossings is verbatim from the narrative field of BNSF’s own filings, retrieved from the FRA Office of Safety Analysis on 2026-05-13.

What Comes Next

Three records-request paths surface the rest of the corridor record:

• City of Phoenix Streets Transportation Department under ARS 39-121: the Capital Improvement Program line items for the BNSF Phoenix Subdivision corridor at mileposts 185.353 through 189.615, including any documented plans for channelizing medians, four-quadrant gates, or pedestrian-specific gates at the three crossings.
• ADOT Rail Section under ARS 39-121: any FHWA Section 130 program correspondence, corridor safety studies, or inter-agency memos referencing the same corridor.
• Federal Railroad Administration Office of Railroad Safety under 5 USC 552: inspector defect reports, civil-penalty cases, and Highway-Rail Grade Crossing Safety Plan correspondence between FRA and BNSF Railway Company referencing the Phoenix Subdivision.

Related Coverage

For the legal and process context, see Brandon Millam’s guide to Arizona car crash law, Stephanie Ramirez’s car crash first 48 hours, the car crashes practice overview.