Illinois Commerce Commission - Transportation - Railroad Crossing Safety

Welcome to the Illinois Operation Lifesaver web site. This site contains information covering a broad range of areas dealing with railroad safety, education and outreach. By staying out of the path of oncoming trains, we will all live longer and more productive lives. Each year in Illinois, approximately 80 people die on and around railroad tracks and property. There are few incidents that occur that affect a community and its residents like someone killed by a train. Families and friends of those people killed, train crews, railroad employees, first responders are all greatly impacted by such needless events.

Look through the site for information that can help us save lives in Illinois. Our goal is to reduce collisions, injuries, and deaths at highway railroad grade crossings and railroad rights- of -way. The Illinois Operation Lifesaver program began in 1976. That year, we had over 800 railroad incidents and 96 people were killed, in 2005 collision totals were down to 177 and 30 people lost their lives. We are making a difference in Illinois.

Operation Lifesaver is an active, continuing public education program designed to reduce the number of crashes, deaths and injuries at highway-rail intersections. It is sponsored cooperatively by federal, state and local government agencies, civic and business organizations, the nation's railroads and other groups interested in highway safety.

To meet its lifesaving goals, Operation Lifesaver is designed to increase public awareness of highway-rail grade crossing hazards and improve driver and pedestrian behavior at these intersections. In conjunction with its educational phases, Operation Lifesaver emphasizes engineering improvements, including the installation and upgrading of grade crossing warning signals and signs, and the enforcement of existing traffic laws.

The three areas of concentration are:

Education - Operation Lifesaver's success lies in educating people of all ages to the hazards at grade crossings. Methods used to reach the public include civic presentations, early elementary and driver education curriculum activities, school bus driver training, industrial safety, law enforcement training, and media coverage.
Enforcement - If existing laws governing motorist and pedestrian rights and responsibilities at highway-rail grade crossings are not enforced, they will be ignored and broken. State and local law enforcement agencies should be urged to "crack down" on motorists and pedestrians who disregard these laws and jeopardize their lives and the lives of others.
Engineering - Grade crossings must be kept as physically and operationally safe as possible, with improvements made where needed. The public should be educated about federal, state and railroad programs that plan, install and maintain grade crossings.

What Most Americans Do Not Know About Vehicle-Train Crashes

333 - Number in millions of vehicles that cross railroad tracks every day.
355 - Number of people killed in 2004 at highway-rail grade crossing collisions.
485 - Number of people killed in 2004 trespassing on railroad property.
18 - Number of football fields it takes a freight train, traveling at 55mph, to stop.
50 - Percentage of vehicle/train collisions that occur at crossings with active warning devices (lights, gates, bells).
242,500 - Approximate number of at-grade highway-rail crossings in the U.S.
40 - Times you are more likely to die in a crash with a train than you are to die in an automobile crash.
2 - Average time, in hours, between each incident where a vehicle or pedestrian is struck by a train.

Worried about plane crashes?
Did you know that more people die in highway-rail grade crossing crashes in the U.S. each year than in commercial and general aviation crashes combined?

Feel safe in your surroundings?
The majority of highway-rail crashes occur within 25 miles of your own home.

Think railroads are public areas?
Railroad tracks, yards, and trains and other equipment are private property. Walking or playing on them is illegal and is subject to arrest and fines. Currently in Illinois that fine for a first offense can be as high as $250.00!

Not concerned about trains unless they are moving fast?
The majority of highway-rail crashes occur when the train is traveling less than 30mph.

Illinois Railroad Crash

Statistics - Information in this section is designed to provide the media with a quick reference to statistical facts and how Illinois compares in national statistics.

The Basics - Highway-rail crash statistics for 2005 indicate that Illinois had 177 crashes at public crossings. Thirty people were killed and another 85 seriously injured. Illinois has over 7,300 miles of track with 8,412 public crossings and 4,673 private crossings. Nationally this puts us second in both categories.

Highway-Rail Terminology

Highway/Rail Grade Crossing - The general area where a roadway intersects a railway.

Public Grade Crossing - A highway/rail grade crossing where the roadway is under the jurisdiction and maintained by a public entity.

Private Grade Crossing - At-grade crossings where the highway is privately owned and is intended for use by the owner or by the owner’s licensees and invitees. It is not intended for public use and is not maintained by a public highway authority.

Private Grade Crossing - At-grade crossings where the highway is privately owned and is intended for use by the owner or by the owner’s licensees and invitees. It is not intended for public use and is not maintained by a public highway authority.

Active Highway-Rail Crossing Devices - Traffic control devices that give positive notice to highway users of the approach or presence of a train. Active devices include flashing light signals, automatic gates, and other similar devices activated by a train passing over a detection circuit or, in some instances, by manually operated devices.

Passive Warning Devices - Non-electric traffic control devices, including signs, markings and other devices located at or in advance of a crossing to indicate the presence of a crossing. The purpose is to alert highway users to prepare for and take appropriate evasive action. Passive warning devices include:

Cross Bucks - White reflecting X-shaped signs with "RAILROAD CROSSING" in black lettering, located alongside the roadway at railroad tracks. Cross bucks should be considered to be the same as a yield sign.
Advance Warning Sign - A round yellow sign with "R X R." It is located alongside the highway in advance of the crossing and is designed to notify a motorist of a highway/rail crossing ahead.

States With Highest Highway-Rail Incidents in 2005

Texas	324	Minnesota	15
Illinois	152	Mississippi	12
Indiana	146	North Carolina	12
Louisiana	144	South Carolina	12
Georgia	133
Ohio	116
Alabama	100
Michigan	95
Florida	94
California	34

Top City List – In the past five-years, 364 Illinois cities have had a train-vehicle collision occur at a grade crossing located either within the city boundaries proper or nearby. The twenty cities with the greatest number of collisions over the past five-years account for 33 percent (33%) of all collisions at public grade crossings in Illinois.

Geographic Distribution of Collisions – Train-vehicle collisions occur at highway-rail grade crossings throughout Illinois. However, the Table below, as well as the following map, illustrate that approximately forty percent (40%) of all collisions occur in the six-county region of northeastern Illinois (Cook, DuPage, Kane, Lake, McHenry, Will counties).

Risk of Collision – The six-county region accounts for approximately 73 percent (73%) of the State’s risk of experiencing a train-vehicle collision when risk is presented as the product of the number of daily trains and annual average daily highway traffic (AADT).Trespassing, defined by the Federal Railroad Administration as "any person who is on that part of railroad property used in railroad operation and whose presence is prohibited, forbidden, or unlawful," has become one of the leading causes of railroad related fatalities in Illinois. The only authorized place a person may be on railroad property in Illinois is at a commuter rail station or at a public highway crossing.

Trespass Fatalities: 2004

California	86
Texas	41
Illinois	27
Florida	22
North Carolina	20
Washington	19
Georgia	18
Ohio	18
Arizona	17
New Jersey	16

Twenty-five people were killed trespassing in Illinois in 2003, while another 28 individuals were injured. Thousands of trespassing incidents occur each day, however only those that result in injury or death are reported.

Educational Materials

Operation Lifesaver has a wide variety of educational materials for all ages. To order Materials, contact: Elite Promotions 1-800-720-8516, or Morton Suggestion 1-800-323-0423.

Volunteer!

You can Make a Difference. Help us end tragedy on the rails: Get involved. Become an Illinois Operation Lifesaver volunteer! Each year more than 300,000 people in Illinois -- including school children, drivers education students, school bus operators, professional truck drivers, law enforcement, emergency responders, state fair attendees and members of civic organizations -- receive Operation Lifesaver safety messages from an OL-trained and certified Presenter or Associate.

If you enjoy public speaking and would like to tell people about safety around the rails, consider becoming an Operation Lifesaver Presenter. To become a nationally certified Operation Lifesaver presenter, you must attend a presenter course taught by an Operation Lifesaver instructor and successfully pass the course.

The course is free to the public. Once you have passed the course, you will give a presentation to be monitored by a certified Operation Lifesaver presenter. After receiving an acceptable rating on this presentation, you will be certified as a presenter, you will be required to give four presentations within one calendar year of your first monitored presentation.

OL volunteers are people from all walks of life: locomotive engineers and other train crew members, teachers, retirees, health professionals, police officers, truck drivers, students and maybe even you! If you want to be part of the solution here in Illinois and want to get involved click on: Contact your state coordinator for more information on becoming an Operation Lifesaver volunteer.

Contact Operation Lifesaver and Request a Presentation:

Chip Pew
State Coordinator
Illinois Operation Lifesaver
Illinois Commerce Commission
580 Vine Avenue
Highland Park, Illinois 60035
Office: (847) 433-3943