“The trains are very quiet; they go really fast, and every year people get hit by a train because they’re walking on the track and think they have time," Phil Merens, state coordinator for New York Operation Lifesaver, said.

New York Operation Lifesaver, a nonprofit that raises rail safety awareness, reports that a person or vehicle is struck by a train every three hours in the United States, amounting to about 2,100 incidents yearly.

It’s a dramatic decrease since the organization was founded in 1972 – when collisions occurred every 45 minutes on average – but organizers say there is still work to be done to prevent the nearly 1,000 train-related deaths that happen each year.

As part of Rail Safety Week, volunteers clad in red could be spotted at the Rensselaer Amtrak on Friday morning handing out rail safety information to passengers at the station. Participants included current and former railroad workers, local police officers and others that know firsthand the severity of train-pedestrian accidents.  

“We’re trying to give people the information to make better decisions because most people don’t realize how many die this way,” Phil Merens, state coordinator for New York Operation Lifesaver, said. “The trains are very quiet; they go really fast and every year people get hit by a train because they’re walking on the track and think they have time.”

The Capital Region has seen its fair share of train-related tragedies. This past May, an Ulster County woman and her dog died after being struck by a train in Rhineback. Merens said the woman and her family crossed the tracks to go to the Hudson River and that she was struck after attempting to catch her dog who ran back across the tracks.

Just months later, a woman was killed in July after being struck by an Amtrak train in Schenectady near Edison Avenue, where the tracks are elevated over the street.

There is not much a train can do to prevent these casualties. Even if a locomotive engineer does spot an endangered pedestrian or vehicle on the tracks, they are unable to swerve or stop the train in time to prevent a collision.  

Merens emphasized that the only safe place to cross the tracks is at a designated public crossing with a crossbuck, flashing red lights or a gate – and that people who cross at any other place can be ticketed or fined in addition to putting their lives in peril.

He also said they are also working with community organizations to get information to at-risk groups, such as the region’s homeless population, who might use the train tracks more regularly than others.

New York State is home to the largest commuter rail and transit rail operations in the country, with ridership of more than 1.3 billion passengers on its more than 3,500 miles of track according to the Department of Transportation.

For more on rail safety, visit the New York Operation Lifesaver website.

Melissa Manno is a Hearst Fellow covering business, with a focus on commercial real estate development and retail. She also covers breaking news. Melissa graduated from Penn State University in 2022 with a bachelor's degree in journalism and minors in geography and digital media trends and analytics. She covered identity and culture for The Daily Collegian and has previously interned for the Centre Daily Times, the Council on Foreign Relations, the Smeal College of Business and the Organization for Aid to Refugees in the Czech Republic. She is also the 2021 Hearst National Journalism Writing Champion. You can reach her at melissa.manno@timesunion.com.