Need for RR safety impressed during whistle-stop event

A representative of Oconee County Sheriff’s Department came away from a whistle-stop train excursion impressed with the need to promote safety along the nation’s rails. Norfolk Southern and Operation Lifesaver organized an 814-mile excursion from New Orleans, Louisiana to Greensboro, North Carolina. And Jimmy Watt, the public information officer for the Oconee Sheriff’s Department, rode the segment from Greenville, South Carolina to Charlotte, North Carolina. The goal was to promote highway rail and pedestrian safety by reducing accidents and fatalities at highway rail crossings. There are nearly 200 crossings between Greenville and Charlotte on a route that sees about 30 trains a day. In South Carolina, there are more than 21-hundred crossings. To highlight the need for safety and caution, considers these facts: A 100-car freight train going 55 miles an hour needs more than one mile to stop. The force of a train hitting a car is the equivalent of a car hitting a soda can.