Highway-Rail Grade Crossings
With approximately 140,000 public grade crossings in the United States, improving grade crossing safety is an enormous challenge that will take the combined efforts of railroads; state, local, and federal governments; public safety officials; and the public. More work needs to be done, but much progress has been made.
From 1980 through 2010, the number of grade crossing collisions on U.S. passenger and freight railroads fell 81 percent; injuries associated with collisions fell 79 percent; and fatalities fell 69 percent. The grade crossing collision rate has fallen every year since 1978.
What’s the most important thing anyone can do to help prevent grade crossing collision? Stop, look, and listen at grade crossings!
AAR Background Paper: Raise the Grade on Grade Crossing Safety (PDF)
Click here to go to the Web site of the FRA's Highway-Rail Grade Crossing and Trespasser Prevention Division
Causes of Grade Crossing Accidents
According to a June 2004 report issued by the Department of Transportation's Inspector General, 94 percent of all grade crossing accidents are caused by risky driver behavior. (See PDF of full inspector general report here.)
Grade Crossing Warning Signs and Signals
Active warning devices at grade crossings (such as flashing lights and gates), as well as passive devices (such as stop signs and yield signs), are highway traffic control devices and cannot be installed by railroads on public roads without the consent and permission of appropriate government authorities.
Each state receives an allocation of federal safety funds for grade crossing improvements. States, not railroads, determine the location and types of grade crossing signals to be installed, and develops a priority list of where to put them. These decisions are based on factors factors such as average daily motor vehicle traffic, train volumes and speeds, and accident history. Railroads have strongly supported recommendations to install stop or yield signs at all passive railroad crossings.
Railroad Industry Initiatives to Improve Grade Crossing Safety
Railroads spend several hundred million dollars each year on programs related to grade crossing safety, including educational activities, crossing signal maintenance, and vegetation control. Additional railroad efforts to improve grade crossing safety include:
- Sponsorship of Operation Lifesaver (http://www.oli.org/), a non-profit organization dedicated to ending tragic collisions, fatalities and injuries at highway-rail grade crossings and railroad rights-of-way. Operation Lifesaver provides free safety presentations to more than 1.3 million people every year. Click here for a fact sheet from Operation Lifesaver on grade crossing safety.
- Working closely with communities and property owners to close unnecessary and redundant crossings.
- Sponsorship of cutting-edge public safety campaigns designed to promote grade-crossing safety and prevent trespassing on railroad tracks.
- Installation of digital video recorders on locomotives to record the track, crossings, and signals in front of trains.
Links and phone numbers for Class I railroads: