ICC to award grant for rail safety education

The Illinois Commerce Commission's Railroad Safety Section has issued a Request for Grant Proposals for local railroad safety education and enforcement programs. The ICC recently received a grant from the Federal Railroad Administration to continue working with local communities and railroads in Illinois to implement railroad safety education or enforcement programs.

In 2001,
U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) helped launch the project now known as PEERS
(Public Education and Enforcement Research Study) after convening roundtable
meetings of state and local officials to discuss ways to improve safety at railroad
crossings in Illinois.

"This
successful partnership between the Federal Railroad Administration and the
Illinois Commerce Commission came out of a terrible tragedy – a fatal train
crash in Bourbonnais in 1999 that forced us all to sit down and reexamine the
safety of Illinois rail crossings," said Durbin. "Since then, the PEERS program
has dramatically reduced rail crossing violations, by as much as 71 percent in
Northeastern Illinois. With this funding we are able to continue to promote
rail safety and prevent future tragedies. I strongly encourage all communities
affected by rail traffic to apply for these grants."

In addition
to traffic law violations decreasing by as much as 71 percent, analysis of
collision data by the ICC indicates that collisions between vehicles (and
pedestrians) at public highway-rail grade crossings in Illinois, have decreased
by 46 percent since PEERS was implemented. PEERS funds provide local police
departments an opportunity to provide positive reinforcement to members of the
public who comply with traffic laws while preventing needless tragedies in
their communities.

Communities
interested in partnering with the ICC on a rail safety education or enforcement
program, may submit a proposal describing railroad safety concerns in the area,
proposed education and/or enforcement activities, and the amount of the grant
request.

$2.4 million
has been distributed via 116 grants to five Illinois railroads, two railroad
safety related non-profit organizations and 109 communities throughout
Illinois. In the first five phases of PEERS that have been completed, PEERS
grantees have devoted over 10,000 hours of man-power to enforcing railroad
related traffic safety laws during which 8,957 citations and warnings were
issued and 119 arrests were made.

In addition,
PEERS has provided for the training for more than 100 individuals to become
certified Operation Lifesaver presenters who have then gone out into their
communities and made 4,735 presentations reaching an audience of over 250,000
people.

Typical
PEERS-funded activities include law enforcement details (referred to as safety "blitzes")
where officers target specific hot spots with additional enforcement. The
installation of appropriate signage to warn the public is a first step to
implementing effective enforcement campaigns.

With PEERS
funds, two railroad safety related non-profit organizations, Health World and
Illinois Operation Lifesaver, partnered with ICC staff to develop innovative
approaches to reaching children throughout Chicago’s suburbs, via the Railroad
Rally.

The deadline
to submit proposals is noon on Nov. 1, 2010. Proposals selected for funding
will be announced on or after Dec. 1, 2010. The grants will be awarded for
projects to be implemented between Jan. 1, 2011 and Dec. 31, 2011.