According to OperationLifeSaver.org, a train hits a person or a car about every three hours in the United States.

To make matters worse, Texas is third in the nation in grade-crossing fatalities with an average of 20 per year. According to the Federal Railroad Administration, 267 grade crossing fatalities occurred in 2014. That is almost 10 percent of the national average here in Texas alone.

Stop, look and listen. That should be your first reaction at any railroad crossing, especially if the grade crossing is not controlled by lights and gates. The railroad cross bucks, according to the Federal Department of Transportation, mean the same thing as a stop sign.

Please stop when you come to a grade crossing with no lights or bells. Here in Texas, we have thousands of uncovered crossings on country roads, farm roads, and driveways.

You cannot beat the train. No matter how much you try, the train will always win. It weighs thousands of tons in the locomotives alone, barreling down the tracks at upwards of 60 mph in some cases. In addition to the sheer size, there is the optical illusion that a train creates. It is next to impossible to judge the speed of a closing train, unless you are a trained expert.

In addition to being third in the country in grade crossing fatalities, Texas leads the nation in collisions. These are accidents that did not result in death, but certainly in property damage to not only the offenders vehicle, but the railroad property as well. In many cases, severe injury was also sustained. In 2014, Texas collected 287 of the 2280 grade crossing collisions.

Please watch this video, and know a train is powerful. VERY POWERFUL! Unfortunately the passengers in this vehicle did not make it. The force of the impact killed the occupants on the passenger side on impact. The car was dragged more than a mile and a half before the freight train was able to stop.

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