 Although the number of train vehicle collisions nationwide dropped 3% last year, the number of fatalities and injuries rose. Railroad tracks and crossings can be dangerous, and now with a new down-easter service to Brunswick starting next month, there will be more trains going through Portland's neighborhoods every day. Volunteer Maurice Fortin talked with Tom about main operation lifesavers' campaign to teach drivers and pedestrians alike ways to stay safe. Maurice, thank you for joining us. You're welcome. You're with main operation lifesaver? Yes, I am. And this has to do a lot with the fact that the down-easter is going to be expanding its route, its railroad route from Portland to Brunswick as of November 1st. And your organization is concerned with the safety issues? Yes, we are. What are some of those? Some of the safety issues is primarily trying to get people to understand that these trains will be running, and they can run on any track in any direction at any time. And the other big thing we try to do is get people to understand that when they're walking on the tracks, which we see lots of folks doing, this is against the law, it's trespassing because the railroad tracks and the right-of-ways on both sides, about 30 feet at least, is all owned by the railway. You don't belong there unless you have permission from the railroad to be there. There have been many, many deaths because of this nationwide from trespassing, as well as injuries and deaths from being hit by a train. Particularly this down-easter, when it starts running through here, it'll reach speeds up to 70 miles an hour. And in the city, it won't be going that fast, but we have 12 railway crossings here in Portland alone, and plus all the other communities on the way into Brunswick all have areas. We've been trying to do a lot of education, both with community organizations in schools all the way to K-12 and driver-ed classes, trying to make them all understand that these trains will be coming three times a day, and we want them to be safe, so to be careful around the railroad crossings and not to walk on tracks. Are the rails and the crossings that this route will cover, are they currently being used by freight? Yes, they are. They have been, but will this greatly increase the frequency of, it's useful, people be surprised by how much? I think they will be, yes, because they've never, particularly from here to Brunswick, they've never seen passenger trains coming through, and they will be going very quickly. Much quicker than the freight trains. Much so, yes. Most freight trains will probably travel somewhere 40, 50 miles an hour. These trains will be doing 70 miles an hour. So even though people aren't supposed to be walking on the tracks, they've probably gotten into the habit of it because those tracks are so useful. But there are signs everywhere that says no trespassing. Those signs have to be observed because, again, it's for folks, people's own safety. What kinds of things do people do, you know, you have some statistics about how many deaths there have been and what causes those deaths? Again, just ignoring signals at crossings. We've seen many accidents where the gates come down. Some folks will try to drive around the gate to beat the train, and you just can't beat these trains because when a train is traveling, it's a 55 miles an hour that has been some studies done. It takes over a mile for a train to stop when it's going that speed. Trains will stop. They will not stop quickly. And, again, the same thing if you're walking. The engineer can blow his horn, but it's up to us to be out of the way of the train. So what some of the activities that the main operation lifesaver is doing to try to alert people? What we're trying to do is we do a lot of public safety programs. We do sessions with, again, with driver aid. That's the one I do a lot of. And it's like a 20-minute presentation just showing them some of the things that they need to be aware of as a driver when they come up to a railroad crossing. All railroad crossings have what is called an advanced warning sign, probably 100 feet before it. And it's a round yellow sign with a black ax and two R's on it. When you see that sign, what you need to do is slow down and be prepared to stop when you get to that intersection. And, again, driver aid we do. We do a lot of presentations in schools all the way from kindergarten up to grade 12 to make sure that all the children understand that this is a real hazard for them so they need to stay off the tracks. That sounds good. I grew up in New Jersey and one of my favorite places, because there's not a lot of parks, was the railroad tracks. Yes. I think that you're reaching the schools there. What are some of the statistics about that? In 2011, there were over 2,000 accidents of trains and vehicles. In that area, I believe there was 288 deaths and there was over 900 injuries. And the trespassing, those statistics, there were 388 deaths and 429 injuries from trespassing. Wow. So where can you people get more information? They can get more information from the website, it's www.oli.org and there's a lot of information they can download from that and free of charge. Great. Well, thank you very much for joining us. You're very welcome.