Caltrain to launch safety campaign with grant money

Written by Jenifer Nunez, assistant editor

Emphasizing its ongoing commitment to safety, California's Caltrain has been awarded one of eight national rail safety grants and will use the funds to sponsor a youth film festival featuring videos on rail safety.

 

The $18,875 grant, awarded by Operation Lifesaver and matched by Caltrain to equal $25,250, will be used by the agency to launch a campaign to increase awareness of the dangers associated with an active rail corridor. The grant will focus on raising issues related to pedestrian awareness through a series of video dramatizations that highlight dangerous behaviors around trains.

With the grant from Operation Lifesaver, Caltrain will team up with Fresh Takes, a local youth digital arts organization, to produce a series of rail safety videos targeting teens, commuters, distracted walkers and drivers and other potential unsafe behaviors.

The program kicked off earlier this month at the Fresh Takes studio in Redwood City with a rail safety presentation to familiarize the teens with the railroad’s major safety concerns.

“Using the youth-based digital arts program to create and produce messages on rail safety is a great concept,” said Peter Aadland, state coordinator and executive director of California Operation Lifesaver. “The creative product should really resonate with other youth and that is what it’s all about, delivering the points that will help someone make the right decisions when they are around railroad property.”

The video project will make its public debut during a Caltrain Film Festival set to celebrate Rail Safety Month in September.

The grant program is a partnership between Operation Lifesaver and the Federal Transit Administration.

 

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