The event
Union Pacific railroad and Operation Lifesaver invited three Mountain View High School students and their principal aboard a train Thursday to learn about rail safety. Additionally, Union Pacific's Crossing Accident Reduction Enforcement, or CARE, program partnered with the Tucson Police Department to pick off motorists who committed railroad-crossing violations.
The focus
Mountain View seniors Brooke Abbey and Jamie Leverty, junior Manny Vinas-Barreras and Principal Patricia Cadigan got to see what railroad engineers see out on the tracks while operating trains, and they got safety tips about being around tracks and trains.
The objective
Abbey, Leverty and Vinas-Barreras will share what they learned with their classmates at Mountain View by writing articles for the school newspaper and producing a safety video. Vinas-Barreras videotaped the ride and interviewed train and law enforcement officials. "I'm going to take all the footage I got today and compile it into a public-service announcement and air it at Mountain View High School so they can learn what to do in certain situations and how to be safe on railroad tracks," he said.
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Number of citations issued
Police issued 98 citations, mostly to motorists who stopped on tracks while waiting for stoplights to change, drove through flashing red lights or crossed over tracks while the arms were going down. "It was interesting to see how many people got pulled over. We saw three at one stop," Leverty said. Six people also were ticketed for trespassing. Railroad tracks are private property owned by Union Pacific, and it is illegal to walk on or near them.
– Andrea Rivera
