CULLMAN – At Cullman City Hall on Friday morning, Nancy Hudson, executive director of Alabama Operation Lifesaver, addressed members of the press and department heads of the City of Cullman.
According to the organization, Operation Lifesaver is a nonprofit international public education program that was started in 1972 to end collisions, deaths and injuries at highway-rail grade crossings and on railroad rights-of-way.
“We are really excited to be running this tour, and I am so proud to be able to include Cullman on the tour,” said Hudson. “This is the 15th city on the tour.” The 40-city tour is part of an initiative by Operation Lifesaver to reconnect with local mayors and city leaders.
In the last nine years, partially through the work of Operation Lifesaver, Alabama is sixth nationally in railway safety.
Hudson spoke to a crowd in the City Hall auditorium including Cullman City Police Chief Kenny Culpepper and Mayor Max A. Townson.
Hudson gave a brief press conference preceding a 15-20-minute presentation aimed at local leaders, in order to give them an idea of the kind of safety that should be emphasized around the city’s railroad crossings.
She also spoke strongly against the use of railroad tracks as a backdrop for photo shoots.
“For some reason, we have high school photographers wanting to take their seniors out to railroad tracks and take pictures on them,” Hudson said. “I do not care that it is illegal. I care because it is deadly. I know you all have seen what happens to cars and vehicles when they get hit by trains from movies and TV shows. You do not want to see what happens when that train hits a person.”
Culpepper asked if she knew of any towns where kids were wandering onto the tracks due to Pokémon Go, to which Hudson replied, “Not yet, but I am sure there will be kids doing that soon.”
Hudson and Culpepper announced a new collaborative project that Operation Lifesaver and the Cullman City Police Department will engage in, that has, according to Hudson, worked in other counties.
“We are going to have a date set when we have Operation Lifesaver volunteers at the railroad crossings in town and they will be handing out information and explaining the laws of obeying red lights at train tracks,” she said. The police will the crack down on those disobeying the laws around train tracks in the following days.
“And then those who get a ticket will go to court and have an option- listen to a presentation by me for about an hour, or pay the ticket,” she said. “We’ve found that most people choose to listen to me.”
Background: http://cullmansense.com/articles/2016/04/15/alabama-operation-lifesaver-announces-railroad-safety-annual-report-and-40-city
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