On June 3, a report published by the Miami-based company Injury Claim Coach revealed that Florida ranks sixth in the U.S. for number of railroad crossing accidents. The report was based off of four years of data released by the Federal Railroad Administration that detailed crossing accidents across the nation between 2014 and 2018. Over the span of four years, there were 462 reported accidents in Florida, with 25 percent resulting in injury and 16 percent resulting in death.  

Researchers also identified the crossings and geographical areas with the most injuries and fatalities. One Jacksonville railroad crossing had 47 accidents alone. On the Florida East Coast Railway (FEC), which runs from Miami to Jacksonville, Brightline passenger trains and FEC freight trains caused 76 fatalities in three years.

Nationally, the number of railroad accidents is staggering: in 2017, Forbes reported that a person or vehicle is hit by a train approximately every three hours. Between 2014 and 2018, there were 10,752 documented highway-railroad crossing accidents, with over one in four resulting in injury and one in ten resulting in death. Almost two in three of these train-related deaths involved pedestrians.

What Causes Crossing Accidents?

According to Injury Claim Coach’s report, there are several reasons behind the prevalence of pedestrian and motorist railroad crossing accidents in the U.S. Here are some of the most common contributing factors:

• Failing to stop at the crossing. The greatest contributing cause of crossing accidents is individuals failing to stop at the crossings. This encompassed over one in three accidents, nine percent of which were fatal.
• Going around crossing gates. Encompassing 14.3 percent of railroad crossing accidents, walking around crossing gates was the leading cause of fatal pedestrian accidents involving trains. 26.6 percent of these accidents resulted in death.
• Stopping on a crossing. Though only 5.6 percent of these accidents were fatal, motorists stopping on railroad crossings caused almost one in four of all railroad crossing accidents.
• Stopping before crossing then proceeding. In about six percent of crossing accidents, pedestrians and motorists stopped before the railroad before proceeding ahead and getting struck. 6.4 percent of these accidents were fatal.
• Suicide attempts or suicide. Though suicide attempts made up just 2.2 percent of crossing accidents, they were by far the most deadly: 82.8 percent of suicide attempts caused fatalities.

Railroad Companies Must Prioritize Public Safety 

Railroad companies have a history of avoiding accountability in rail crossing deaths, often chalking up accidents to be the fault of the victims themselves. While it is important for everyone to take extreme caution around railroads, the sheer number of accidents proves that rail lines need to do more to reduce the number of tragic, preventable accidents.

In Florida, which is currently undergoing hundreds of miles of rail line construction for Virgin Trains USA’s upcoming high-speed trains, it is vital that rail line executives prioritize the prevention of crossing accidents. It will never be acceptable for rail lines to take a “hands-off” approach to public safety.  It is time them to take action, and be held responsible when their continuous failure to do so ends in tragedy.