Passenger Bus, Rail and Motorcoach Industry News

Runs from April 29 to May 5 under the theme of "A Shared Responsibility," emphasizing that Canadians play an important role in rail safety. Promotes the importance of rail safety by engaging in dozens of community-level events and local activities.

Last year, more than 800 people were injured or killed while trespassing on railroad property in the U.S., according to preliminary Federal Railroad Administration statistics.

Detailed activities include celebrating its 40th anniversary with a leadership summit; initiating updates to the volunteer education process; and increasing the organization’s social media presence.

State program directors for the national, nonprofit rail safety education organization will gather in Chicago from Feb. 26 to 28 to learn about new materials and methods for volunteer training and share best practices for raising awareness of rail safety issues in their communities.

The three-and-a-half minute video will be used by OL's trained volunteers during free safety presentations in their communities via computers or iPads. It will also be available on the nonprofit's website.

Says sustained public education efforts, engineering improvements and law enforcement programs have contributed to nationwide reduction.

Rise in pedestrian incidents points to need for increased awareness of dangers of walking on or near train tracks.

The campaign will include banners and signs inside and outside of train cars reminding people to keep their "heads up - don't text around trains;" "listen up - remove headphones around trains;" "stand back - stay behind the yellow line at stations;" and "look twice - another train could be coming from the other direction."

The nonprofit cites FRA statistics, which indicate 2,004 vehicle-train collisions in the U.S. in 2010, up 4.2 percent from the 1,924 incidents in 2009. The collisions resulted in 260 deaths and 810 injuries, with crossing deaths up 5.3 percent and crossing injuries up 9.8 percent.

New features include rotating scenarios illustrating the statistic that about every three hours in the U.S., a vehicle or person is hit by a train; and simplified navigation through six main categories, and "quick links" to popular pages from the home page.