It's usually never a good idea to enter a game of chicken with a train. We'll always take the train in that bet. Still, that doesn't stop hundreds of Texans from tempting fate and trying to drive over a track as a train is incoming.
According to data from the Federal Railroad Administration, Texas leads the nation in highway rail crossing crashes, with 246 crashes with trains involving vehicles and pedestrians at at-grade highway-rail crossings in 2023. California came in second with 173 crashes.
And we know this information will shock you, but according to the Dallas Morning News, most of the rail crossing crashes in Texas were the result of "human error."
Even though Texas is leading the pack, the number of crashes involving trains and humans has significantly decreased over the decades.
Jessica Devorsky, executive director of Texas Operation Lifesaver. Operation Lifesaver is the largest rail safety organization in the U.S. said, "In the '70s and '80s we were up to 12,000 collisions annually and then in 2021 it was reduced all the way down to 2,000 nationally."
Most of the crashes in Texas seem to occur in Harris County. From 2019-2021, Harris County had the highest number of highway-rail incidents in the state at 81, followed by Tarrant County with 30, and Dallas County with 26.
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