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During the first quarter, U.S. railroads improved safety in most categories, with the exception of trespasser incidents and fatalities, according to preliminary Federal Railroad Administration data.

Total train accidents and the accident rate per million train-miles dropped 5.7 percent and 7.6 percent, respectively, compared with first-quarter 2004. Total combined accidents and incidents declined 14.4 percent, while the accident/incident rate fell 16.1 percent during the quarter.

In addition, the employee-on-duty casualty rate of 2.10 per 200,000 manhours decreased 23.1 percent compared with first-quarter 2004’s 2.73 rate. And year-over-year grade crossing incidents and fatalities dropped 9.3 percent and 18 percent, respectively, while the crossing incident rate fell 11.1 percent.

However, the first-quarter trespasser incident rate rose 7.6 percent and trespasser fatalities increased 7.2 percent compared with first-quarter 2004.