Ohio’s former crossing restrictions were struck down as federally preempted, while legislation aimed at restoring state authority remains stalled in Congress.
LOCKLAND, Ohio — The death of an 89-year-old woman in a Lockland house fire is renewing a yearslong dispute over stopped freight trains that block emergency routes, an issue local officials have struggled to address because railroad regulation largely rests with the federal government.
Marian Haefner died Sunday after a fire at a home in the 400 block of Patterson Avenue, according to the Hamilton County Coroner’s Office. Lockland Fire Chief Doug Wehmeyer said a stopped Norfolk Southern train blocked his department’s normal route to the fire. A trip that generally takes about 30 seconds instead took roughly seven minutes, he said.
A Reading fire crew reached the house before the Lockland unit and firefighters removed Haefner from a bedroom. She later died. Wehmeyer has said he cannot directly attribute her death to the train delay, but he said the incident illustrates the risks created when emergency vehicles cannot use crossings that connect parts of the village.
The problem predates Sunday’s fire. Lockland officials have complained for years about stopped trains blocking streets and delaying first responders. In 2022, firefighters responding to another Lockland fire were delayed after a train blocked crossings, an incident that also drew attention to the village’s limited options for getting around rail traffic during emergencies.
Ohio once had a law restricting how long trains could obstruct public road crossings. But the Ohio Supreme Court ruled in 2022 that the state provision was preempted by federal law. The ruling involved charges against CSX Transportation and concluded that federal railroad law prevented Ohio from enforcing its anti-blocking statute.
The decision significantly limited the state’s ability to penalize railroads for stopped trains at crossings. An effort to take the case to the U.S. Supreme Court was unsuccessful, leaving federal legislation as one potential route for restoring authority to states seeking their own crossing limits.
U.S. Rep. Warren Davidson of Ohio introduced the Railroad Responsibility Act of 2025, known as H.R. 341, in January 2025. The measure would amend federal transportation law to allow states to set limits on how long railroad carriers may block grade crossings. The legislation was referred to the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and then to its railroads subcommittee, but it has not become law.
Wehmeyer said his department has worked with Norfolk Southern for years over blocked crossings. After Sunday’s fire, he said local and state officials lack the authority needed to solve the underlying problem and argued that action at the federal level is necessary. He also said the Sunday incident was the second time in a week that a stopped train had delayed emergency responders in Lockland.
Norfolk Southern said it was investigating Sunday’s incident and communicating with Lockland officials. The company said it recognizes concerns about emergency access and works to avoid affecting communities with stopped trains while keeping its rail network operating safely.
The fire itself remains under investigation. Wehmeyer said it appeared to be accidental and that an assisted lift chair was being considered as a possible cause, although investigators had not issued a final finding as of Monday. The railroad delay and the fire investigation remain separate issues, and officials have not concluded that the blocked crossing caused Haefner’s death.
Her death nevertheless has returned the crossing dispute to the center of a public-safety debate that Lockland officials have raised for years. With Ohio’s former anti-blocking law displaced by federal authority and H.R. 341 still awaiting congressional action, local officials remain without the state enforcement tool they once sought to use against prolonged crossing blockages.
Author note: Last updated Oct. 19, 2026.