ADAMS COUNTY, ILL. -- Look, Listen, Live has been a common saying with Operation Lifesaver for years. Operation Lifesaver started in Illinois in 1976. Back then, there were 800 grade crossing collisions between cars and trains, and 100 fatalities. Last year, there were 78 collisions and 13 fatalities. Chip Pew says safety has improved at the crossings, but he credits Operation Lifesaver for saving lives.
Here's something you may not know. Every public grade crossing in the country is assigned a specific number...kind of like an address. If your car stalls on the tracks, call the 800 number and give the dispatcher the DOT number. That way they can contact nearby trains and tell them to stop.
So where are those numbers? Many of them are on the signal bungalow. This is a housing for the electricity that operates a signaled crossing. Others can be found on a plaque that's on the railroad crossing pole.
"If a train's coming, which way do you run? You run in the direction of the train, but at a 45 degree angle. If you run down the track, you end up not being hit by the train, you get hit by your own car parts," says Chip Pew, a Rail Safety Specialist with the Illinois Commerce Commission.
Pew tells KHQA in the last two years, two people in Illinois have been killed because they ran the wrong way from the train.
"Please, when you approach any crossing whether there are gates, lights, bells, and gates, or a crossing with no appliances, look in both directions. It's the driver's responsibility to yield the right of way to any oncoming train," says Pew.
Just remember, those three words you've heard for decades..
"Look, Listen, Live," says Pew.
One other thing Chip Pew says, the actual railroad crossing sign that's posted at all public railroad crossings actually means yield.
He says on some crossing with no lights or bars, the Illinois Commerce Commission has been installing yield signs in addition to the crossing signs.
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