As the summer season gets underway, Amtrak is raising awareness about safety in an effort to reduce injuries and fatalities resulting from unsafe behavior by motorists and pedestrians on railroad crossings and tracks.
According to the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA), vehicle-train collisions at highway-rail grade crossings fell 2.4 percent in 2016. Amtrak cites the FRA data shows that the number of people killed in these incidents rose 13.7 percent last year, and deaths due to train track trespassing increased 12.8 percent. Total trespass-related casualties increased 14.5 percent from 2015 levels.