The Federal Railroad Administration announced that it will be partnering with Google to include all grade crossing locations in the United States in Google Maps.
Google has agreed to add crossing information from the database maintained by the Department of Transportation to not just pinpoint all crossing locations but to add visual and audio alerts as well for drivers using the app's turn-by-turn navigation feature. All in all, around 85,000 private and 130,000 public grade crossings are scattered around the country.
The move is aimed at reducing accidents involving railroads, which rose by 9 percent last year. Before 2014 though, the U.S. recorded declining accidents by over 80 percent, going down from 12,000 annually in the 1970s to around 2,000 a year recently.
According to federal safety statistics, 843 injuries and 270 deaths were reported in highway-rail collisions. Accidents in grade crossings account for the second-highest cause of fatalities in railways, coming in after trespassing accidents that killed 533 individuals last year.
As drivers are relying more and more on their devices for directions while traveling, it makes sense to tap into location-based services to improve safety on the road, most especially Google Maps since it is one of the most popular mapping apps on both iPhones and Android phones. The Federal Railroad Administration, however, aims to cover as much ground as possible so it also got in touch with Garmin, TomTom, MapQuest and Apple.
Accidents typically occur when a driver is not paying attention or makes an error while in a grade cross. A lot of the time, however, there are no blinking lights or gates warning drivers that a train is coming--just a crossbuck (a white "X" with "railroad crossing" printed on them) or crossing sign.
Officials can't say for sure what led to the rise in grade accidents last year but one of the reasons given is that a growing economy has put more people on the road and more trains on tracks.
"The vast majority of these accidents and deaths are preventable," said Sara Feinberg, acting administrator for the Federal Railroad Administration.
She added that accidents normally occur when drivers are distracted or when they try to beat a train thinking they have enough time to cross. There are also times though that drivers get into accidents because they are not aware of the situation as they might be unfamiliar with the route or the road is dark.
No date has been specified for when grade-crossing information will be made available on Google Maps but the project is a priority, according to officials from the Department of Transportation.
Photo: Michael Coghlan | Flickr
