UP urges photographers to stop taking pictures on tracks after fatality

3/21/2017    

Rail News: Union Pacific Railroad

An ad from Union Pacific's photo safety campaign.Photo – UP

Union Pacific Railroad yesterday reiterated its call for photographers to stop taking pictures on or near tracks.

The warning followed news of a Texas teen who was killed last week while posing for photos on UP tracks. The young woman was standing where two tracks meet in Navasota, Texas, when she was struck by a train, The Bryan-College Station Eagle reported last week.

As part of an ongoing campaign that the Class I launched nearly two years ago, UP uses social media videos to warn about the dangers of taking photos on railroad property. One pair of videos compares the dangers of taking photos on tracks to posing for pictures on a highway.

Trespassing on railroad rights of way is the leading cause of rail-related deaths in the United States, UP officials said in a press release.

More than 400 railroad trespass fatalities occur each year, UP officials said, citing Federal Railroad Administration data.

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