The MTA recently raised awareness about railroad-crossing safety at the Ronkonkoma Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) station and other stations across the island on International Level Crossing Awareness Day (ILCAD) on June 5.

MTA staff, donning neon-orange vests and white hard hats that read “Think Safety, Act Safely,” spoke with commuters waiting for their train at Ronkonkoma Station during morning rush hour to inform them about railroad-crossing safety.

“We’ve had a lot of good conversations with folks that have come through,” said Lori Ebbighausen, vice president of corporate safety and the chief safety officer at the MTA.

Ebbighausen said that one of the numerous commuters she spoke with worked for a utilities company, and they discussed how companies must prioritize safety not just for their employees, but for the public at large.

“We’re all in this together,” Ebbighausen said. “Here at [the] Long Island Rail Road, similar to other companies that serve the public, we are very focused on ensuring not only the safety of our employees, but also the communities that we serve and people that use our system.”

The International Level Crossing Awareness Day began in Europe, in 2009, to raise public awareness about railroad-crossing safety, as statistics showed that while accidents at level crossings accounted for only 1 percent of road fatalities, they made up around 28 percent of railroad fatalities, according to ILCAD.

Since 2017, the LIRR and Metro-North Railroad have continued to raise public awareness about railroad-crossing safety every June and throughout the year, at schools, and other awareness events like Rail Safety Week in September.

The MTA’s Together Railroads and Communities Keeping Safe (T.R.A.C.K.S.) initiative, which partners with the MTA Police, helps to bring these public outreach and awareness projects to life.

The T.R.A.C.K.S. team advises anyone, whether pedestrians or motorists, traveling through level crossings to “never walk or drive through or around a safety gate with the warning lights flashing or when the gate is in motion or down.”

If a driver’s vehicle ever gets stuck on the tracks, the MTA advises that the driver and passengers should exit immediately and move to a safe location away from the tracks, then call 911 or a phone number listed on nearby railroad-crossing signs.

Workers from the MTA weren’t just stationed at Ronkonkoma station on June 5, but also helped bring outreach to commuters at Bethpage, Deer Park, Syosset, and Little Neck stations during the morning peak hours. To make ILCAD possible, the MTA also partnered with the Federal Railroad Administration, the State of New York, and the Public Transportation Safety Board.

There are nearly 300 grade crossings across the LIRR system, with dozens on the Montauk line from Bay Shore through Shirley. Over the last three years, there have been approximately one or two incidents at grade crossings per month across the island, resulting in at least 100 summonses issued to motorists each month for violating rules around grade crossings or engaging in other dangerous behavior.

From 2018 through 2022, when implementing its third track project, the LIRR eliminated eight grade crossings in Nassau County. A recent $2.2 million grant from the Federal Railroad Administration will eliminate grade-level crossings at Ocean Avenue and Pond Road in Ronkonkoma.

“Being able to eliminate those crossings was tremendous for us, and a very unique opportunity, because eliminating the crossing is a very expensive endeavor,” Ebbighausen said. “[The] MTA has been very instrumental in helping us to apply for grants.”

To stay up to date with grade-level emergencies, Long Islanders should save the LIRR’s Grade Crossing Emergency Notification Number, 1-800-311-1628, the MTA said.