With railway crossing crashes at tragic levels, there’s a simple solution to save lives, advocates say
Every three hours, a person is hit by a train in the U.S., officials said Monday in announcing Illinois Rail Safety Week.
That number strikes a chord in the Chicago region, the nation’s busiest train hub, with local experts seeking renewed action to prevent catastrophic injuries.
There were 219 incidences of trains striking vehicles or pedestrians at rail crossings in Illinois in 2000, according to recent Illinois Commerce Commission data.
That tally gradually decreased to 106 in 2009, jumped to 148 in 2022, then dropped to 102 in 2023 and 2024.
“Those crossing collisions should be going down because we could engineer those away,” said DuPage Railroad Safety Council Chairman Dr. Lanny Wilson. In 1994, Wilson’s 14-year-old daughter, Lauren, died in a vehicle collision with a train in Hinsdale.
The regionwide, nonprofit DRSC advocates for railway safety and crash prevention, such as installing four-quadrant gates at crossings to stop drivers from maneuvering around barriers.
“If all four lanes were blocked, people would not make that tragic mistake of weaving around the crossings,” Wilson said.
When he began urging deployment of four-quad gates in the 1990s, just a few existed in North America. Now there are 1,269 in the U.S., which has more than 250,000 rail crossings, Wilson said.
“If we truly wanted to stop all of these collisions or certain deaths at railroad crossings,” there’s three solutions, he said. “Either close the crossing, do a grade separation or put in four-quad gates.”
An underpass under construction at Route 14 and the Canadian National tracks in Barrington will cost nearly $70 million, according to estimates. Four-quadrant gates start at about $500,000 but can cost more in urban areas, officials said.
Trespassing occurrences along railway lines in Illinois, which typically involve death or injuries, totaled 55 in 2024 compared to 56 in 2000, records showed. The three-year average is nearly 54.
Suicide occurrences involving trains in Illinois came to 24 in 2023 contrasted with the three-year average of about 21. Experts say suicides are underreported.
Nationwide, the rate of railway crossing collisions per million train miles decreased from 4.96 in 2000 to a low of 2.72 in 2012. It edged up to 3.71 in 2024.
That’s significant, given a decrease in train traffic with consolidations and other factors.
“You have fewer trains but the same number of accidents,” ICC Railroad Safety Specialist Steve Laffey said.
“Pedestrian safety is really taking a hit lately in all modes of transportation,” he noted.