(Midlands News Service circulated the following story by Joe Ruff on June 13.)
NORTH PLATTE, Neb. — The number of cars and trucks involved in train accidents at public rail crossings has dropped by about 60 percent over the past two decades, the Federal Railroad Administration said Thursday. But the FRA said more progress is needed at private crossings.
Rail crossings that drivers use to get to fields, industrial plants and homes often are not regulated by states or the federal government, said FRA Administrator Joseph Boardman. To help improve safety, federal legislation or a national policy outlining private rail crossing safety standards might be needed, he said.
Finding funds to improve safety at private crossings is one of the issues that must be resolved, FRA officials said. Generally, legal agreements between property owners and railroads govern maintenance and safety at the 87,000 private crossings nationwide, the agency said.
Omaha-based Union Pacific Corp. and other railroads, the FRA and property owners are among the players who together should decide the best course in promoting safety at private crossings, Boardman said.
Union Pacific spokesman Mark Davis said the railroad agrees that safety should be enhanced and that all parties should work together to make that happen.
Both the FRA and Davis stressed the need to have as few private and public crossings as possible. There are nearly 227,000 rail crossings across the country.
“The safest crossing is the one that does not exist,” Davis said.
The FRA said several initiatives in a 2004 rail crossing and trespass prevention plan will be completed this year. Among initiatives that have helped reduce accidents are placing reflective tape on engines and railcars to increase their visibility, and requiring train horns to be sounded at public crossings unless a quiet zone has been established with other safety measures in place, the agency said.
In the coming months, the agency also plans to issue a multiyear research and development plan to support projects such as innovative and low-cost technologies for modernizing existing warning devices and improving detection of oncoming trains by automobile drivers.
According to the FRA, about 400 accidents and other incidents resulting in more than 30 deaths occur each year at private rail crossings.
Over the past 20 years, the number of incidents at public rail crossings has dropped by about 60 percent, compared with a drop of about 26 percent at private crossings, the agency said.
Over the last five years, 12,739 accidents and 1,586 fatalities have occurred at public crossings, compared with 2,053 accidents and 186 deaths at private crossings.