New Rider's Guide MARC Cross Honoring Agmt. In the wake of the recent accident involving a VRE train and a young man riding a motorbike on the Fredericksburg line, VRE would like to take some time to relate a few startling facts pertaining to railroad safety, in order to emphasize the seriousness of railroad crossing safety. However, railroad accidents rarely involve passengers on board a train.
Most accidents occur on the tracks, especially where railroad tracks meet highways.
These junctions, known as grade crossings, are where most injuries and deaths involving trains occur. As a motorist in the United States, you are more likely to be killed in a crash with a train than with another automobile-40 times more likely, according to Operation Lifesaver statistics. Shocking and hard to believe, but this statistic is just one of many compiled by Operation Lifesaver which may take you by surprise. Nearly 2,000 Americans die or are injured in vehicles every year at highway-rail intersections. Tragically, not all train accidents involve other types of vehicles.