FRA 04-06
Contact: Steve Kulm
or Warren Flatau
Thursday, June 1, 2006
Tel.: (202) 493-6024
FRA Promotes Highway-Rail Grade Crossing Safety and Trespass Prevention with
Grant to Operation Lifesaver, Inc.
Preventing and reducing collisions, fatalities and injuries arising from
highway-rail grade crossing and railroad trespass incidents is the goal of a
$1,025,000 Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) grant to Operation Lifesaver,
Inc. (OLI), a not-for-profit railroad safety education organization.
Trespassing and highway-rail grade crossing deaths comprise approximately 95
percent of all rail-related fatalities in the United States each year. The grant
funding will be used for public education and awareness programs in all 50
states and the District of Columbia. As part of the grant agreement, OLI is
required to receive 25 percent matching in-kind contributions from
non-government sources for a total program effort of $1,366,500.
“Far too often, preventable tragedies occur because motorists and pedestrians
ignore the dangers of grade crossings at railroad tracks,” said FRA
Administrator Joseph H. Boardman. “Increased public knowledge will result in
more people making the right safety decisions around the rails.”
Since 1995, the highway-rail grade crossing collision rate has declined from
6.92 to 3.84 per million train miles, reaching an all-time low in 2005. And, the
number of deaths resulting from train-vehicle collisions has decreased by 38.5
percent, from 579 to 356, over the same period. Unfortunately, the number of
fatalities resulting from trespassing on railroad property has remained fairly
constant at approximately 500 per year.
Today’s grant supplements the FRA’s wide-ranging highway-rail crossing safety
and trespass prevention program that includes numerous engineering, enforcement
and educational initiatives. It also supports the U.S. Department of
Transportation’s National Rail Safety Action Plan and the Secretary of
Transportation’s Action Plan for Highway-Rail Grade Crossing Safety and Trespass
Prevention, the blueprint for Federal efforts to combat these problems.
Recent actions taken by FRA include: a Safety Advisory stressing the railroad
industry’s role in preventing grade crossing accidents; a rule requiring the
sounding of the locomotive horn at all public grade crossings unless the
crossing is sufficiently protected by warning devices and other safety measures;
and a rule requiring reflective materials on locomotives and freight railcars to
give motorists an additional visual warning of a train that is occupying a
crossing in poor weather or lighting conditions.
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Briefing Room
