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Facts and Statistics (U.S. and Minnesota)

  • On average, more people die in highway-rail crashes than in commercial airline crashes each year.
  • When a train crushes a car, it's equivalent to a car crushing a pop can.
  • A typical train weighs the same as 4,000 automobiles combined.
  • About two-thirds of all collisions at crossings in the United States happen in daylight.
  • Approximately every two hours, either a vehicle or a pedestrian is struck by a train in the U.S., an average of 12 incidents each day.
  • According to statistics from the Federal Railroad Administration: in 2006, 310 people were killed and 1,026 seriously injured in 2,923 highway-rail grade crossing collisions (combined public and private crossings).
  • In 2006, 12 people were killed and 17 injured in 61 highway-rail grade crashes in Minnesota.
  • In 2006 in the United States, 518 people were killed while trespassing on railroad right-of-way and property, including 6 people in Minnesota. An additional 470 trespassers were injured, including 6 in Minnesota.
  • A motorist is almost 20 times more likely to die in a crash involving a train than in a collision involving another motor vehicle.
  • Three out of four crashes occur within 25 miles of a motorist's home. Fifty percent of all crashes occur within five miles of home.
  • More than half of all grade crossings collisions occur where train speeds are 30 mph or less.
  • There are 20 freight railroads, the Amtrak passenger service and the Hiawatha corridor lightrail line operating in Minnesota.
  • There are 4,631 commercial rail line miles in Minnesota. If you placed all the railroad tracks in Minnesota end to end, you could ride a train from Minnesota to Washington D.C. and back almost twice.
  • There are approximately 218,000 miles of railroad track in the United States.
  • Approximately 30% of public crossings in Minnesota have active warning signals.
Sources:
Federal Railroad Administration
Operation Lifesaver, Inc.
Minnesota Department of Transportation

Fact Sheets

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Contact Minnesota Operation Lifesaver, Inc. , Inc.
dnaumann08mnol@aol.com
2515 White Bear Ave. Suite #126, Maplewood, MN 55109
National Operation Lifesaver