SOUTH BEND, Ind.
(AP) - The deaths of two people who were hit by trains while walking or
standing on railroad tracks are prompting railroad officials and safety
advocates to raise awareness of the dangers of risky behavior around the
tracks.
The deaths since
May 28 mark the greatest total in St. Joseph County in any year since 2012,
according to the Federal Railroad Administration, and are part of a national
trend that has seen deadly railroad accidents rise from 405 in 2011 to 501
in 2014.
Railroad officials
and safety advocates say most, if not all, of the fatal accidents can be
traced to illegal trespassing on railroad property.
“It is not safe and
not legal to access railroad property, whether yards or tracks, without
permission from the company,” Dave Pidgeon, a spokesman for Norfolk Southern
Railroad, told the South Bend Tribune.
Indiana law makes
trespassing on railroad property a misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in
jail and a $1,000 fine. Two women were charged last summer after a video
showed them surviving a close call with a freight train while walking across
a trestle 80 feet high over Lake Lemon in Monroe County in southern Indiana.
The video showed
the women start to run, then lay down on the tracks as the 100-car coal
train weighing 14,000 tons bore down on them. The train passed over them
with just 10 inches of clearance.
Officials say train
tracks often cross other natural barriers such as rivers and crowded roads
and that people see them as the fastest way to get around the obstacles.
Jessica Feder,
Indiana coordinator for Operation Lifesaver, a railroad-safety advocacy
group, said northern Indiana typically records more train accidents
involving pedestrians than other parts of the state because of heavy rail
traffic from Chicago.
Pidgeon said the
tracks are the company’s busiest in the country, handling up to 100 trains a
day.
Feder said the
deaths, including one that occurred Monday when a 51-year-old South Bend man
was struck from behind while walking on the Norfolk Southern tracks, reflect
just a fraction of the people walking across and along railroad tracks.
“It’s always been a problem, but it’s becoming a bigger problem,” she said.
“It’s way more popular and happening a lot more than what you’re seeing from
the injuries and deaths.”
Two other people
have died since May 1 after being hit by trains in St. Joseph County, but
those deaths were ruled suicides.