Personal Injury Law

Motorists at continued risk of Chicago car accidents involving railroad crossings

By Kris Briggs

As our Chicago injury attorneys have noted in a prior posting to our Chicago Car Accident Lawyer blog, last summer Illinois was on a list of 10 states federally mandated to improve railroad crossing safety due to high numbers of fatal car accidents involving Illinois drivers and pedestrians.

Given that Illinois has the second largest rail system in the country and one of the more highly-trafficked road systems, that there are accidents between trains, vehicles and pedestrians is of little surprise to any of us.

With that said, after a four-year drop in fatal Illinois train-vehicle crashes, 2010 Illinois traffic crash statistics report a spike in both train-vehicle and train-pedestrian fatalities, reinforcing the need for more railroad safety protocols.

Last year, the Chicago Tribune reports, there were 17 train-vehicle fatalities reported between January and November and 10 incidents where pedestrians were fatally struck by trains. To address this increase, Operation Lifesaver and the Illinois Commerce Commission are introducing a series of English and Spanish-language public service announcements to remind Illinois motorists to never try to beat a train.

The ICC notes that Illinois has more than 7,200 miles of track that includes 10,883 public highway-rail crossings. The Illinois Department of Transportation reports that there are more than 10 million registered vehicles and more than 8.7 million licensed Illinois drivers who traveled more than 105 billion miles in 2009.

For Illinois drivers and State DOT authorities, the safety battle is as much about sharing road space as it is about constantly reminding drivers and pedestrians to be hyper-vigilant when approaching rail-and-road-system intersections.

Illinois train-vehicle crashes represent 1 percent of all fatal crashes reported in 2009, and claimed 11 lives and left another 128 people injured. Three fatalities ? or 25 percent of fatal Illinois train-vehicle crashes ? occurred at urban locations where a railroad gate was in place. The remaining 75 percent ? or eight fatalities ? happened at crossings on rural county and local roads where alternative railroad crossing indicators were identified.

Operation Lifesaver lists Illinois as fourth in the country for highway-rail grade crossing collisions, behind Georgia (3rd), California (2nd) and Texas (1st). The organization notes that a driver is 20 times more likely to die in a crash with a train than with another vehicle, and offers these tips to help keep Chicago drivers safe:

~ When approaching a rail-roadway intersection ALWAYS assume a train is coming even if you can?t see or hear one. Today?s trains are quieter and moving faster than you think. And, it takes much longer for a train to stop than a car or even a tractor trailer. A train traveling 55 m.p.h. requires more than a mile to come to a complete stop.

~ Railroad tracks are private property and 100 percent of the time trains have the right-of-way. So, walking along or stopping your vehicle on train tracks is legally trespassing (not to mention a safety hazard). Never walk (or stop your vehicle) on train tracks.

~ Trains are wider than the tracks by several feet, so stopping or standing NEXT to the track is just as dangerous as being on the track.

~ A train can weigh anywhere from 400,000 pounds to 6,000 tons; a car weighs a fraction of that amount. An impact between a train and a car is equivalent to a car striking a soda can.

Full post as published by Illinois Injury Law Blog on January 16, 2011 (boomark / email).