SAN ANTONIO – A Union Pacific officer is trying to lower the number of people hit by trains in San Antonio. Officers on the West Side spent hours Thursday educating and ticketing railroad crossing violators to stop one more death from occurring.
Fast Facts:
In the United States, a train hits a person or vehicle every three hours.
People walk across the tracks despite the blinking lights.
Officers found drivers stopping their cars on top of the tracks.
The stopping distance for a freight train traveling 55 MPH is a mile and a half. That’s 18 football fields.
Last week, officers gave out 96 violations in just two and a half hours.
Railroad crossing violations are Class C misdemeanors and fines can run anywhere from $50 to $200.
What Officer Mike Quinones with the SAPD is saying:
“Most people know what they do wrong, but what can you do? That's why we're out here.”