Train-vehicle deaths up in 2010

CHICAGO — The Illinois Commerce Commission says annual deaths in vehicle collisions with trains rose last year for the first time in more than five years.

ICC railroad safety official Chip Pew says the increase is likely due to an uptick in freight-train traffic as the economy improved.

There were 17 vehicle-train collision deaths between January and November of 2010. For all of 2009, ten died. Pew says the number of deaths was a return to levels seen in 2008, when 15 people died.

Pew notes accidents figures are still down dramatically from decades ago. He estimates there were fewer than 130 collisions that resulted in either deaths or injuries last year. That compares to over 800 in 1976, the year Illinois launched state-wide programs to reduce collisions.