Every three hours someone is hit by a train in the United States. Many times, it’s a result of trespassing.
“If you see tracks, stay back,” said Norfolk Southern spokesman Dave Pidgeon. “It’s not worth your safety or your life to take a photograph or to take a selfie or even to use the tracks as a shortcut.”
It’s called the “See tracks? Think train!” campaign. The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission is teaming up with railroad safety agencies across the country to warn people about the dangers around railroad tracks.
The latest update to the campaign is aimed at stopping people, especially youth, from usingtrain tracks as the setting for photo shoots or “selfies.”
“Last year down on the Northeast Corridor they had a young fellow that was killed out there while he was taking photographs on the Amtrak’s northeast corridor,” said Pennsylvania Operation Lifesaver State Coordinator Thomas Algatt. “That just spurred more and more where people said, ‘Hey, we have to stop doing this.'”
Operation Lifesaver and the Federal Railroad Administration have released numerous PSA’s (like this one: https://vimeo.com/147888194) demonstrating that railroad tracks are the world’s third most deadly place to take a “selfie.”
“You could have one train in five hours. You could have five trains in one hour. You just don’t know,” Algatt said.
There were 31 deaths and 13 injuries involving people struck on tracks in Pennsylvania in 2015. Since January 2016, at least eight people have already been killed on the tracks, and six have been injured.
“You can show the people videos. You can talk to the people and tell them about dangers of trespassing along the railroad tracks, but ultimately they’re the ones that are gonna have to make the decision of whether or not they’re gonna be out there on the tracks,” Algatt said.
Pennsylvania ranks fourth in states with highest trespasser casualties. Like this ad says, “No Photo is Worth the Risk.”