Caltrain To Release New Rail Safety Ads For TV and Radio

As part of its ongoing “Don’t Shortcut Life” safety campaign, Caltrain will release a new series of video and audio public service announcements, titled “Because…” which focus on the many excuses people give for ignoring active railroad crossing arms. Transit police regularly cite drivers and pedestrians for attempting to cross the tracks after the arms have been activated, but before they are completely down, or they go around the lowered arms altogether.

According to the Federal Railroad Administration, in 2006 there were more than 2,800 collisions between trains and vehicles that were illegally situated on the tracks. During that same period, more than 350 pedestrians were killed while trespassing on railroad tracks. In light of these statistics, Caltrain public information and outreach staff worked with transit police to identify some of the more common excuses that people seem to offer when they are confronted about engaging in this extremely dangerous and illegal behavior.

A variety of these were used in the PSAs, so they might resonate with people who currently take risks by ignoring the warning from the railroad crossing arms. “We hear all sorts of excuses from people,” said Detective Victor Lopez, of Caltrain’s Transit Police Division. “They say they ignored the signals because they were late, or because they had an appointment, or because they didn’t know it was dangerous. But what they don’t realize is that ‘because’ doesn’t count for anything when you get hit by a train.”

The PSAs will be released for their first public viewing on Monday, July 30 at 7 a.m., at the San Francisco Caltrain Station. Caltrain staff will premier the PSAs and will be passing out rail safety information to passengers at the station. The PSAs will start airing on Comcast Cable channels over the coming month and will run through September. They will also be available for viewing and on the Caltrain Web site starting after Monday’s event.

07/24/07 - jbw
Media Contact: Jonah Weinberg – 650.508.6238