(The following story by Diane Gasper-O’Brien appeared on the Hays Daily News website on October 22.)
HAYS, Kan. — Begin teaching students about railway safety at a young age. Continue to emphasize those points during the next several years, and something is bound to stick.
That’s what Union Pacific Railroad hopes to accomplish with Operation Lifesaver, a national program that promotes safety around railroad tracks.
A UP passenger train was in Hays last week to promote safety about train crossings and around railroad tracks. And students from Washington Elementary School got to enjoy a rare treat with a train ride to Victoria.
The price of the ticket? Just listen to a presentation on safety.
Along the way, Kim Mullin, an Operation Lifesaver volunteer out of Salina, instructed the students about do’s and don’ts concerning trains and railroad tracks and crossings.
Mullin didn’t even try to get the youngsters’ attention while the train still was traveling through town.
“Oh, sweet,” Noah Leon said as the train began traveling east while he was facing back west.
“Where is N.E.W.?” Noah asked of the customer service center in southeast Hays.
“My mom works there,” he explained.
Noah kept his eyes glued to the horizon and was all smiles as the train crossed Commerce Parkway.
“N.E.W. is over there,” he said, pointing south.
Once the novelty of riding on a train wore off a little, Mullin went to work.
To keep the third-graders’ attention, he made comparisons understandable to his audience.
He explained to them that while it takes a passenger car 200 feet to stop at 60 mph, it takes a freight train a mile — or 5,280 feet — to stop.
Eyes got even bigger as Mullin told them a freight train running into a family car is much like that same vehicle running over a soda pop can.
“Trains can’t swerve, so guess whose job it is to stay off the tracks?” he asked, smiling to the loud chorus of, “Ours.”
“There are sidewalks and playgrounds and backyards,” Mullin said. “Why would anybody want to play on a railroad track?”
Operation Lifesaver was started in Idaho in the early 1970s when the national average of collisions at highway railroad crossings was more than 12,000. In the first year of Operation Lifesaver, Idaho reduced its fatality rate by 43 percent. Kansas started the program just a couple of years later and likewise dramatically decreased its fatalities in railroad accidents.
The organization gives free presentations to civic groups, students, government officials and anyone who asks, and last week, the train was making a trek through northwest Kansas.
Mullin said some of the targeted groups for the educational presentations are driver’s education students.
“Driver’s ed classes teach them about safety on the roads,” Mullin said, “and we try to add to that, with being safe around railroad crossings.”
He said while Washington students obviously aren’t yet in that age category, he still thinks Operation Lifesaver is a valuable teaching tool.
“Whenever we can squeeze younger people in on these rides, we do,” Mullin said. “If they hear it now, they might remember it when they hear it again when they’re older and are driving.”
Allen Park, principal at Washington, agreed. He said when he learned about the event early in the week, he wasn’t sure if he had enough time to get the entire school organized to attend.
“When I went around to all the (class) rooms and asked if they would want to go, everyone said, ‘Yes,’ ” Park said. “All the teachers wanted to go, too. Some of them had never been on a train.”
Some of the don’ts that Mullin stressed were crawling underneath the train, climbing on railroad cars and trying to beat a train.
“That equipment is so big that a lot of time at (railroad) crossings, people can’t tell how fast the train is going,” said Mark Davis, a UP spokesman out of Omaha, Neb.
The dos: pay attention to railroad warning signs and flashing red lights and train whistles.
All those tips also are listed in a safety tip coloring book given to Park to distribute to the children, who Park said talked about the trip the rest of the week.
By the time the train was ready to make its return trip Wednesday, the students had calmed down considerably.
In one seat, siblings Kevin and Jackie Guzman, along with another friend, Itzel Guzman — all third-graders — traded places so they all could get a chance to sit by the window.
Some students figured out how to operate the foot rests and the release to lay down the seats for a more relaxing ride.
Others kept busy pulling down shades on the windows and talking to fellow classmates.
Fourth-grade teacher Shannon Demel even got somepaper grading done.
“This is just another great experience for the kids,” Park said. “They read about trains and see trains but don’t get to ride on them. Here, they got an opportunity to experience what that’s like — and learned more about them, too.”