It looks like Texas can lay claim to another "number one" status. And like many of the other number one rankings Texas has received in the past few years, this is not one to be proud of. It seems that Texas leads the nation in accidents and deaths at railroad crossings.
The Texas Rail Relocation and Improvement Association (TRRIA) has just released a report that shows over the last 10 years (1998 thru 2007), Texas led the nation with 12,271 accidents resulting in 853 deaths and 7,203 injuries. The most dangerous counties were Harris (Houston) with 1,376 accidents and Tarrant (Ft. Worth) with 799 accidents.
By contrast, Dallas county was fourth with only 356 accidents. This is still far too many accidents, but it certainly looks a lot better than Harris and Tarrant. Why? Could it be that Dallas has made more of an effort to do something about their dangerous intersections?
Of course, a certain percentage of the accident are the result of stupidity -- people driving around barriers to avoid waiting for the train to pass. But the TRRIA believes that most Texas counties could reduce the amount of accidents by rerouting freight tracks and fixing the dangerous intersections. The group's executive director says, "Far too many Texans are being killed and injured along our state's rail lines."
Listed below are the 12 worst counties for car/train accidents in Texas:
1. Harris, 1,376 rail accidents, 90 deaths and 1,145 injuries.
2. Tarrant, 799 accidents, 39 deaths, 710 injuries.
3. Bexar, 493 accidents, 51 deaths, 519 injuries.
4. Dallas, 356 accidents, 38 deaths, 225 injuries.
5. Webb , 331 accidents, 17 deaths, 282 injuries.
6. El Paso, 282 accidents, 34 deaths, 231 injuries.
7. Jefferson, 222 accidents, eight deaths, 154 injuries.
8. Cameron, 144 accidents, seven deaths, 124 injuries.
9. Brazoria, 143 accidents, eight deaths, 112 injuries.
10. Potter, 123 accidents, nine deaths, 111 injuries.
11. Fort Bend, 121 accidents, 15 deaths, 77 injuries.
12. Bell, 116 accidents, 16 deaths, 97 injuries.
Good article ... just to let folks know ... I live in Houston and I can attest to the numbers for rail road deaths here in Harris County.
ReplyDeleteIn fact, I remember back in Driver's Ed the teacher told us that Harris County has the most rail road crossings in the U.S. thus it could only make sense that we also have the most deaths as well.
Sort of, the thing is ... because we have soo many rail road crossing here in Houston (4th largest city in U.S.) many of the rail road crossings are in high volume traffic zones.
Good point, David.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, I really like your blog, and it's become a regular read for me. Keep up the good work.