[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 14 (Thursday, February 6, 1997)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E182]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




     THE HIGHWAY RAIL GRADE CROSSING SAFETY FORMULA ENHANCEMENT ACT

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. PETER J. VISCLOSKY

                               of indiana

                    in the house of representatives

                       Thursday, February 6, 1997

  Mr. VISCLOSKY. Mr. Speaker, today, I am pleased to introduce the 
Highway Rail Grade Crossing Safety Formula Enhancement Act, which is 
designed to provide a more effective method of targeting available 
Federal funds to enhance safety at our Nation's most hazardous highway 
rail grade crossings. This bipartisan legislation, which is the 
companion bill to legislation sponsored by Senators Lugar and Coats, 
will provide a more effective method of targeting available Federal 
funds to enhance safety at our Nation's most dangerous highway rail 
crossings.
  Specifically, this bill would improve the Federal funding formula to 
account for risk factors that identify which States have significant 
grade crossing safety problems. The factors considered in the bill 
include a State's share of the national total for public highway rail 
grade crossings, its number of crossings with passive warning devices, 
and its total number of accidents and fatalities caused by vehicle-
train collisions at crossings.
  The Rail-Highway Crossing Program, also known as section 130, 
currently provides States with crossing safety funds as part of a 10 
percent set-aside in each State's Surface Transportation Program [STP] 
funds. The program's goal is to provide Federal funds for State efforts 
to reduce the incidence of accidents, injuries, and fatalities at 
public railroad crossings. The States use these funs to build 
underpasses and overpasses, install passive or active warning devices, 
and improve pavement surfaces and markings.
  Several hundred people are killed, and thousands more injured, every 
year in the United States as a result of vehicle-train collisions at 
highway rail grade crossings. A significant number of these accidents 
occur in rail-intensive States, such as Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, 
Kansas, and Texas. More than one quarter of the Nation's 168,000 public 
highway rail grade crossings are located in these five States. One 
third of deaths caused by vehicle-train collisions nationwide between 
1993-95 occurred in these states.
  With 6,587, my home State of Indiana ranks fifth in the Nation for 
the number of highway rail grade crossings, and Indiana is annually 
among the top five States nationwide in terms of accidents and 
fatalities caused by vehicle-train crashes. Just 2 weeks ago, a 15-
year-old boy from Valparaiso, IN was struck by a train while traveling 
to school. Several years ago, my own mother, fortunately, survived a 
vehicle-train collision at a crossing where there were no warning 
devices. This legislation will help prevent senseless accidents like 
these.
  Maximizing the return from Federal funds requires that they be 
targeted to areas with the greatest risk. In a 1995 report to Congress 
on the status of efforts to improve railroad crossing safety, the 
General Accounting Office [GAO] found anomalies among the States in 
terms of the funds they received in proportion to three key factors: 
Accidents, fatalities, and total crossings.
  With the legislation I am introducing today, we have a unique 
opportunity to maximize existing resources, improve safety at highway 
rail grade crossings, and save lives. The establishment of a new 
funding formula is an innovative step in that direction. By targeting 
funds to States on the basis of risk factors, we can put scarce 
resources to work and use a commonsense approach by allocating Federal 
dollars where the need is greatest. This legislation does not call for 
new Federal spending, but rather a more equitable and effective 
distribution of existing highway funds to states to enhance safety at 
dangerous highway rail grade crossings.
  States that would benefit under the revised formula are: Alabama, 
Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, 
Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, North Carolina, North 
Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, Wisconsin.
  Finally, I would point out that my bill addresses the grade crossing 
safety problems by refining a key provision of the existing Intermodal 
Surface Transportation Efficiency Act [ISTEA]. Using my proposal as a 
foundation, I will work with my colleagues to help assure that Congress 
passes highway reauthorization legislation that makes the best use of 
available Federal resources for rail crossing safety. In the 104th 
Congress, I introduced a similar measure, in conjunction with the 
entire Indiana delegation, which I testified in support of last July 
during Surface Transportation Subcommittee hearings regarding ISTEA 
policy. I believe that continued emphasis on finding new and better 
ways to target existing resources to enhance safety at highway rail 
grade crossings will contribute to the overall effort in Congress and 
in the States to prevent accidents and save lives.

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