Operation Lifesaver honors Selby, Wilson for rail safety efforts

Operation Lifesaver Inc. (OLI) last week recognized Lynn Selby and Dr. Lanny Wilson for individual achievement in preventing death and injury around tracks and trains.

Selby received the F. Tom Roberts Memorial Volunteer Award for his rail safety education outreach efforts in Arizona. Wilson received the OL Champion Award for being a champion of rail safety education to prevent vehicle-train collisions in Illinois and nationally, according to an OLI press release.

Selby, a member of the City Council in El Mirage, Ariz., has been an Operation Lifesaver volunteer since 2011, when his concerns about the number of crossing incidents in his area brought the nonprofit organization to his attention. In 2015, he gave railroad safety presentations to professional drivers, school groups, driver education classes and school bus drivers, reaching nearly 1,200 people in the greater Phoenix area. In his time as an OL volunteer, he has reached 40,000 people in Arizona, OLI officials said.

Eight additional nominees for the F. Tom Roberts award were recognized: Mike Fulton of Fresno, Calif.; Del Kittendorf of Marietta, Ga.; Chris Arvas of Pocatello, Idaho; Thomas Schmitt of New Orleans; Allison Terrell Halvorson of Minneapolis; Rob Hemming of Dalton, Minn.; Tammy Wagner of Chicago; and Robert Wilbur of Albuquerque, N.M.  

The F. Tom Roberts Memorial Award honors an individual who has demonstrated outstanding dedication to safety in the number of volunteer hours committed to Operation Lifesaver annually, the nature of volunteer activities performed, and other personal contributions to the Operation Lifesaver program.

Wilson, a physician and vice president of the DuPage County Board of Health, co-founded the DuPage Railroad Safety Council (DRSC) in 1994 with a mission of eliminating deaths and injuries at railroad crossings and along railways after his daughter was killed in a crossing collision.

Since its founding, the DRSC has contributed to many rail safety improvements in Illinois. Wilson has also served as a media spokesman for OLI’s "See Tracks? Think Train!" safety campaign for drivers and pedestrians.

The awards were presented during the Operation Lifesaver Leadership Conference in Fort Worth, Texas, last week.