Railroad Safety

Status of Efforts to Improve Railroad Crossing Safety Gao ID: RCED-95-191 August 3, 1995

Accidents at railroad crossing are the leading cause of death in the railroad industry. Almost half of all rail-related deaths in the United States are the result of collisions of trains and vehicles at public railroad crossings. In 1993, these collisions killed 517 people and injured another 1,677. GAO examined the status of railroad crossing safety nationally. This report (1) analyzes the progress made in reducing accidents and fatalities at crossings; (2) discusses federal and state strategies--for distributing funds, developing technologies, and educating the public--that could reduce railroad crossing accidents and facilities; and (3) assesses the Transportation Department's progress in carrying out its plan for improving railroad crossing safety.

GAO found that: (1) the annual number of accidents and fatalities at public railroad crossings has declined by 61 and 34 percent, respectively, since the Rail-Highway Crossing Program began in 1974; (2) progress in increasing railroad crossing safety has been limited, since states improved the most dangerous crossings during the first 10 years of the program; (3) DOT is developing new ways to distribute funds to those states with the most dangerous crossings and encourage improvements along specific rail corridors; (4) the states are working to close more crossings and strengthen public education and law enforcement efforts to change motorists' dangerous behavior; (5) DOT has set a national goal of reducing railroad crossing accidents and fatalities by 50 percent from 1994 to 2004; and (6) the success of the DOT action plan depends on states' and railroads' cooperation in implementing 55 separate proposals, adequate financing, and the development of an evaluation component to assess the effect of the actions taken.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

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