How Many People Die at US Railroad Crossings Each Year?

Quick answer: Preliminary federal statistics cited in H.Res. 798 record 260 deaths and 762 injuries in 2,260 highway-rail grade crossing incidents in the United States in 2024. A grade crossing is where a road crosses railroad tracks at the same level. The Federal Railroad Administration calls accidents at grade crossings the second leading cause of rail-related deaths in the United States.

The 2024 numbers in full

The 2024 figures are preliminary federal statistics quoted in H.Res. 798, the House resolution supporting Rail Safety Week in September 2025. Preliminary means they can be revised in later releases. They are:

• 2,260 highway-rail grade crossing incidents in the United States in 2024
• 260 people killed in those incidents in 2024
• 762 people injured in those incidents in 2024

The same series gives 2022 as 2,194 incidents, 274 deaths and 803 injured (H.Res. 698), and 2023 as 2,192, 247 and 764 (S. Res. 864). The 2024 incident count was higher than in either previous year, while the death count sat between the 2023 and 2022 totals.

The series covers crossing incidents only. The Grade Crossing Toolkit gives a rounded version: more than 2,000 incidents and 200 fatalities at grade crossings each year. That line dates from December 2024 and should not be used as an exact figure for any single year.

Why crossings stand out in rail safety

Most rail deaths happen at crossings or involve trespassers, not in derailments. The Congressional Research Service report R47911, updated on 24 July 2026, puts the wider rail toll for 2024 at 963 fatalities and 6,535 injuries on America's railroads. That total covers all rail deaths, including trespassers and on-duty workers, so it must never be presented as the crossing death toll. The 963 fatalities were the second-highest in at least 20 years, after 968 in 2023, while the 6,535 injuries were the third-lowest in 20 years.

Trespassers and road-rail crossing incidents accounted for the majority of rail fatalities in 2024. Grade crossing incident rates have risen and erased earlier safety gains, and trespassing deaths have nearly doubled on a per-train-mile basis since 2015, according to the Congressional Research Service.

H.Res. 798 makes the same point in a single share: highway-rail grade crossing and trespassing incidents together constituted approximately 97% of all rail-related fatalities during 2024. That is a combined figure; it does not mean 97% of rail deaths happened at crossings alone.

See How Many People Die on US Roads Each Year? 2024 Data, the United States page and all articles.

Gated crossings and the people most at risk

A crossing with gates and flashing lights is not a safe crossing. H.Res. 798 reports that in 2024, 52% of all highway-rail grade crossing incidents and 68% of all fatal highway-rail grade crossing incidents occurred at gated crossings. More than two-thirds of the fatal incidents happened where gates were present. Gates cannot stop a driver who goes around them, stops on the tracks or misjudges a train's speed.

The Government Accountability Office reported in April 2025 that the United States has approximately 204,000 grade crossings, of which about 130,000 are public crossings.

Pedestrians are a large part of the crossing toll. The Government Accountability Office, in report GAO-25-107115, found for public crossings in 2023:

• 89 pedestrians killed at public railway-highway grade crossings
• Those 89 deaths accounted for about 41% of grade crossing fatalities
• Nearly 1,900 crashes at railway-highway grade crossings, including 1,882 at public crossings
• Failing to stop was the leading cause, accounting for 31%, or 584 of the 1,882 accidents

From 2014 through 2023, about 88% of accidents resulted from failing to stop, stopping on the crossing, going around a gate or other related actions. Driver behaviour, rather than a failure of the train, is behind most of these incidents, as at road junctions: How Many People Die Running Red Lights Each Year? records 1,119 people killed in crashes involving red light running in the United States in 2024.

What is being done to cut the toll

The Federal Highway Administration runs the Railway-Highway Crossings Program, which the Government Accountability Office says provides at least 245 million dollars per year to states to improve safety at public crossings, including adding or upgrading bells, lights and gates. A separate Grade Crossing Elimination Program pays for separating roads from tracks with bridges or underpasses and for closing crossings.

The Grade Crossing Toolkit, launched in autumn 2024, brings together measures including risk assessment, physical barriers, detection and lighting and warning devices, with evidence of effectiveness. H.Res. 798 also names Operation Lifesaver, described as the foremost public information and education programme on rail safety.

Until the incident rate falls, the toll will stay near around 260 deaths a year.

How these numbers were counted

The headline 2024 figures are preliminary federal statistics cited in H.Res. 798 (119th Congress, introduced 8 October 2025), supporting the designation of 15 to 21 September 2025 as Rail Safety Week. The 2022 figures are cited in H.Res. 698 and the 2023 figures in S. Res. 864, in the same preliminary series, subject to revision when final Federal Railroad Administration data are published. The wider rail totals come from the Congressional Research Service report R47911, updated 24 July 2026, and cover all fatalities and injuries on America's railroads. The pedestrian and cause figures for 2023 come from the Government Accountability Office report GAO-25-107115, published in April 2025, which covers public crossings.

Rounded line: Federal Railroad Administration Grade Crossing Toolkit, last updated 13 December 2024. Full sources: CRS R47911, H.Res. 798 and GAO-25-107115.

Figures count incidents, deaths and injuries reported to the Federal Railroad Administration by railroads; an incident is an impact between railroad equipment and a highway user at a grade crossing. Private and public crossings are counted together in the H.Res. 798 trio, while the Government Accountability Office figures cover public crossings only. Counts are not risk: this article does not give a death rate per crossing, because the sources used here do not publish that rate on a comparable basis.