GA OL Statistics

NOTE: Go to https://safetydata.fra.dot.gov/OfficeofSafety for updated statistics.

1. Approximately every three hours, either a vehicle or a pedestrian is struck by a train in the United States. That's 8 incidents each day!
2. A motorist is 20 times more likely to die in a crash involving a train than in a collision involving another motor vehicle.
3. There are approximately 212,000 public, private and pedestrian at-grade highway-rail crossings in the United States (of this total, 130,000 are public crossings.)*
4. More people die in highway-rail grade crossing crashes in the United States each year than in all commercial and general aviation crashes combined.
5. Nearly 50 percent of vehicle/train collisions occur at crossings with active warning devices (gates, lights, bells)
6. Most crashes occur within 25 miles of the motorist's home.
7. Trains CANNOT stop quickly.
   • Average freight train stopping distance:
 55 mph = a mile or more or 18 football fields!
   • 8-car passenger train stopping distance:
 79 mph = a mile or more or 18 football fields!
8. The majority of highway-rail crashes occur when the train is traveling less than 30 mph.
9. Railroad tracks, trestles, yards and equipment are private property. Walking or playing on them is illegal – trespassers are subject to arrest and fines. Too often the penalty is death.

*2021: Federal Railroad Administration preliminary statistics (www.fra.dot.gov).