Angels on Track®

Railroad Safety Questions and AnswersQ: What about the railroad industry claim that railroads are safer now than ever before?
A: Every ninety minutes there is a train on motor-vehicle accident/incident in the United States. More people are killed in railroad crossing accidents each year than in commercial airline accidents. The safest year in railroad history (1999) 402 people were killed, 1,369 were seriously injured. The number of Americans dying each year in train-vehicle collisions has remained about the same since 1984, despite the $4 billion the federal government has spent in the past 22 years to make crossings safer. The death toll clings to about 500 a year. Nine or more times per week a truck (with trailer) and a train collide.

A train carrying hazardous materials runs off the tracks and spills its load on average once every two weeks.

“The number of train derailments has increased by nearly 20 percent over the last four years. Both the Federal Railroad Administration and the Department of Transportation’s inspector general have found that poorly maintained track and inadequate inspections by the railroads could be partly to blame.“ The number of railroad-industry inspectors has been reduced and the federal and state governments have only 550 people to make sure the industry is adequately checking 230,000 miles of track.” (“Derailments up 20pct. in four years” - Associated Press article by Jonathan D. Salant – U.S. & World 3/29/2001)

“Safety is as good as it gets – on paper,” said L.P. King Jr., general chairman of the Conductors’ Committee of the United Transportation Union. “The railroad is the judge, jury and prosecutor.” (“A Crucial Conflict-NS’s Safety Record Honored and Maligned”-Roanoke Times article by Lois Calirie 1/24/1999)

Q: Have the number of fatalities gone down?
A: “Nationwide almost 200,000 railroad crossings do not warn drivers when a train is coming. In these places, there are no lights, no gates, only a roadside sign called a crossbuck.” “Technology has made trains a lot faster now, but a federal study shows each year more than two-thousand Americans never make it across those tracks. They end up colliding with trains. About 250 of them are killed.” (“Missing Signals” NBC5.com by Renee Ferguson 3/1/99)

RAILROAD-CROSSING ACCIDENTS IN OHIO SINCE 1975
#	Total Crossings			Public Crossings			Private Crossings
Year 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013*	Accidents 756 850 929 945 883 709 584 536 467 496 473 428 395 418 430 327 324 290 277 240 239 186 178 154 146 148 140 141 124 135 133 127 120 95 63 73 76 (12) 73 (4) 70 (2)	Killed 51 71 59 83 64 64 52 49 48 50 58 55 67 46 66 58 55 47 45 38 36 14 26 15 21 15 22 26 13 14 8 17 8 12 9 5 5 (2) 9 (1) 9	Injured 247 314 336 314 309 268 107 187 183 190 218 139 137 170 190 147 138 99 97 85 82 63 46 45 59 38 40 35 47 33 36 35 40 34 21 15 30 (5) 25 (2) 26 (1)	Accidents 711 825 882 889 834 658 547 494 437 460 438 399 375 392 404 309 306 272 259 229 220 174 172 142 127 138 123 127 115 116 122 107 114 75 49 62 57 67 60	Killed 48 65 56 78 61 63 52 46 48 49 56 55 67 45 66 57 54 47 43 37 34 13 26 14 19 15 22 21 12 13 7 11 8 10 1 4 2 8 7	Injured 242 309 328 309 297 256 172 178 173 180 185 136 135 164 183 141 131 94 94 82 79 61 45 44 53 38 40 34 44 31 32 32 40 29 16 12 21 23 18	Accidents 45 25 47 56 49 51 37 42 30 36 35 29 20 26 26 18 18 18 18 19 12 6 12 19 10 17 14 9 19 11 16 6 13 8 8 7 2 8	Killed 3 5 3 5 3 1 0 3 0 1 2 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 2 1 2 0 2 0 0 5 1 1 1 3 0 0 3 1 1 0 2	Injured 7 11 8 5 12 12 5 9 10 0 33 3 2 6 7 6 7 5 3 3 3 2 6 0 0 1 3 2 4 3 0 3 3 2 4 0 7
*As of 7/30/14 ( ) = Includes "Other" Source: Federal Railroad Administration, Website FRA.DOT.GOV, Safety Data, Highway-Rail Crossing Accidents, Query FRA Crossing Accident Data. Statistics are based on voluntary reporting by railroads on a continual basis. Stats may vary and change as information is received.

Q: If I come to a unprotected crossing (crossbuck only) I should know a train is coming because I’ll hear the horn or whistle?
A. Whistle posts are placed without regard to train speeds or whistle audibility at the crossing. Regulations for horns, bells, and whistles were not based on the ability of people to hear them, but rather are statutorily based on the distance from the crossing. Many drivers involved in accidents don’t hear a train’s horn until 2 seconds or less before impact.

Law requires the sequence to begin a quarter-mile from the crossing and be repeated until the engine of the train occupies the intersection, but they don’t consider the masking effect of local factory noise, diesel truck engines, school kids, motorcycles, modern sound- proof cars, and other external influences on the ability of a motorist to hear a whistle.

SWIFT DEVELOPMENT ACT OF 1994 – Required locomotive horns or whistles be sounded upon approaching every public grade crossing except where: 1) No significant risk to persons; 2) Use of horn as warning device is not practical; or 3) Supplemental Safety Measures (SSM) fully compensate for the absence of the audible warning provided by a horn or whistle. Most states have statutes or regulations requiring trains provide an audible warning on approach to public grade crossings. HOWEVER, THERE IS NO FEDERAL REQUIREMENT.

Q: There are laws and regulations requiring the railroads to be responsible for public safety?
A. The railroads are privately owned entities funded with public funding, which includes land surveys, rights of eminent domain, massive land grants, low-interest loans, public stock purchases, and grants of financial assistance. They have a shared responsibility for ensuring the safety of the public forced to cross their tracks. However, railroad law was developed during the industrial expansion. Millions of acres were given to railroads because of massive corruption and the outright control of state legislatures. In most states, localities have no control of the tracks going through their communities. The only source of relief is with state agencies, which often lack the power to force the railroads to comply.

“The Federal Railroad Administration has been asleep at the wheel. They have allowed the railroads to regulate themselves with respect to highway crossings.” Rick Vuenick, legal policy director for Citizen Action, Special Project: Railroad Crossings—Tragedy on the Tracks, Gannett News Service, 5/15/2000.

Q. Are there laws or regulations pertaining to sight distance up and down railroad tracks?
A. No. “There are no mandatory requirements for clear lines of sight at railroad crossings.” Bill Gossard, NTSB.

“…taxpayer dollars are spent to cut grass and weeds on private property owned by a multibillion-dollar railroad corporation.” “Although vaguely worded, federal regulations require railroads to cut and mow their property. “The code says vegetation which is on or immediately adjacent to the roadbed shall be controlled so that it does not become a threat.” Mike Purviance, FRA spokesman. Workers Cut Grass Along Rights of Way, Sun Herald, 9/15/00.

“The crossing is not cleared very well. By the time he got clearance to see anything he had to have been right on the tracks.” St. James Parish Sheriff, Willy Martin, Train Plows into Farm Tractor, AP, 6/4/01

“It only takes a trip to the crossing to see just how dangerous it is.“ The tracks near the intersection are curved coming from both directions, and come out from a woody area. ” Trees line the tracks, and brush is on both sides. The trains can’t see people, either. And you have to get almost right up on the tracks to see clearly that nothing is coming. They sound the horn so close to the intersection that by the time you hear it, you either have to go or stop.” (Register-News, Mary Kay Davis, ‘Residents Near Fatal Crash Site Say They Feared It Would Happen’, July 12, 2002)