Railroad-Highway Crossings and Driver Safety

There are over 251,000 public and private railroad-highway crossings located across America. The majority of fatal collisions involve high-speed mainline trains versus slow-moving, or stopped, vehicles. Non-fatal collisions more often occur with slower speeds.

A collision rate of sixty percent occurs during daylight hours. A train-vehicle collision occurs every two hours in America. Seventy-five percent of collisions occur within twenty-five miles of home; fifty percent occur within five miles of home.

Do not drive onto a railroad-highway crossing unless you can absolutely clear the rails on the other side. If your vehicle stalls on the tracks when a train is approaching, do not panic! Get out of the vehicle immediately and proceed to an area of safety, then notify authorities. In this circumstance, instruct others to move away from the tracks, ideally in the direction the train is coming from thereby being further removed from any debris resulting from an impact. Never proceed when cross arms bar your progress. Be extremely cautious at any crossing where steep highway approaches exist.

If multiple tracks are present where a train has just cleared a crossing, wait for that train to clear far enough to determine that other tracks are unoccupied. When looking at a train from nearly a head-on viewpoint - for example, your vehicle stopped at a crossing - the distance and approach speed is impossible to judge accurately. In this situation, never, ever, rely on a speed or distance number that you have arbitrarily decided on - it will not be accurate. Even with a good side view of a train, the brain often miscalculates the speed as being slower than it actually is. This error in judgment is simply because a train is much larger than comprehended at the moment.

Railroad-Highway Crossing Signs and Signals