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6/14/2022
The Federal Railroad Administration yesterday announced it will award nearly $2 million in Railroad Trespassing Enforcement Grants and $207,000 in Railroad Trespassing Suicide Prevention Grants to fund law enforcement trespass prevention activities and educational outreach campaigns aimed at reducing railroad-related suicides on rail rights-of-way.
The awards represent the largest single funding announcement made in conjunction with the FRA’s National Strategy to Reduce Trespassing, which includes targeted technical assistance, collaboration and other activities with stakeholders that have a role in preventing trespassing.
FRA targeted the grants toward communities and states with a high incidence of rail trespass-related incidents and casualties. Twenty-five projects in 13 states will receive funding.
"Through these grants, we will deter railroad trespassing and suicide through coordinated responses from a broad range of local organizations specializing in law enforcement, education and mental health," said FRA Administrator Amit Bose in a press release.
The safety funding increase will aid the FRA's efforts to reduce the estimated 400 trespass fatalities that occur in the nation each year, almost all of which are preventable. Rail suicides often involve railroad trespassing as well. From 2016 to 2021, an average of more than 236 people died by suicide within the U.S. rail system each year in addition to at least another 27 individuals injured in suicide attempts annually.
Grants were awarded to projects in California, Florida, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Montana, North Carolina, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Texas. Suicide prevention grant funds were awarded to three projects, while the other 22 projects received funding under the trespassing enforcement activities program.
A list of the projects awarded funding can be viewed here.