Texas leads the way in decreasing the number of railroad accidents

Texas experienced 49 fewer railroad accidents — the largest decrease of any state — in the first half of 2007 than it did during the same period in 2006. The decrease was part of a trend of continuing railroad safety nationwide, according to the Federal Railroad Administration.

The FRA says 34 states had fewer train derailments and collisions from January through June 2007 than they had during the same period last year. Nationally, in the first six months of 2007, railroads had 246 fewer train accidents, or a 16.8 percent reduction, when compared to the first six months of 2006, one of safest years on record.

According to preliminary statistics compiled by the FRA, collisions between motor vehicles and trains fell by 122, or 8.5 percent; grade crossing fatalities decreased by 21, or 11.5 percent. The train accident rate decreased by 15.5 percent to just 3.07 per million train miles during the first half of 2007; derailments went down by 14.3 percent and train-to-train collisions fell 12.1 percent.

A total of 11 states saw a decrease of 12 or more train accidents, including Texas (-49), California (-31), Pennsylvania (-20), New York (-18), Oregon (-16), Montana (15), Maryland (-14), Ohio (-14), Kansas (-13), Alabama (-13) and Wyoming (-12).

According to Federal Railroad Administrator Joseph H. Boardman, aggressive implementation of FRA’s National Rail Safety Action Plan, launched in 2005, has contributed to the overall improvement in railroad safety.

The Action Plan targets the most frequent, highest-risk causes of train accidents; increases the use of data to focus the FRA’s inspection and enforcement resources; and accelerates research and development activities that have the potential to mitigate the largest risks.