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The Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT) is launching a new safety campaign aimed at preventing collisions, fatalities and injuries at the state’s 2,815 public grade crossings. In the past two years, 95 vehicle-train collisions occurred in Tennessee, causing five fatalities and 26 injuries. And so far in 2011, one person died in a vehicle-train accident, according to the department.

TDOT plans to install 16 billboards and 94 large digital posters near high-traffic crossings to remind drivers and pedestrians to “make safe decisions at crossings and around railroad tracks,” TDOT officials said in a prepared statement. The billboards and posters will be displayed until late 2013 at rotating locations.

The campaign is funded through a ton-mile tax the state collects from railroads to help pay for safety-related programs.
 
“More than 700 fatalities occurred in the U.S. last year as a result of vehicle-train collisions,” said TDOT Commissioner John Schroer. “Those statistics are proof we need to intensify our efforts to educate the public about taking unnecessary risks at railroad crossings.”