(Photo from Iowa DOT's Facebook page)
(Ames, Iowa) Phillip Muraz of the Iowa Department of Transportation's Office of Rail admits it's common sense, but he says some people fail to get the message, and every year they see high school senior pictures taken (often in the fall) with railroad tracks as a back-drop. He's reminding Iowas that this practice is not only extremely dangerous, it can result in hundreds of dollars in trespassing fines.
Muraz tells WHO Radio News railroad tracks are private property, and that typically extends 50-feet either side of the tracks. He also says the statistics prove the danger, noting every three hours in the United States, someone is killed while trespassing on or near railroad tracks.
He says complicating matters, pedestrians are not always paying attention, they may not see or hear an approaching train, and it's difficult to estimate how fast a train is going. He says another danger is people regularly misjudge how wide a train is, wrongly assuming it's about as wide as the tracks, when in fact trains are much wider.