FRA’s Office of Safety public data portal includes railroad safety information, reports and data tables on topics such as railroad accidents, incidents, casualties, and highway-rail grade crossing inventory.

In 2023, the United States registered *** rail fatalities and around ***** non-fatal injuries on the railroads. Injury and fatality numbers had fallen during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021, but 2022 saw a resurgence of accidents above pre-pandemic levels. Positive Train Control (PTC) Ever since the enactment of the Rail Safety Improvement Act of 2008 (RSIA), the U.S. rail industry has been working on implementing the Positive Train Control (PTC) technology on over ****** miles of the rail network. The original deadline of December 31, 2015 was extended to 2018 after several railroads have stated they are unable to meet the deadline due to technical and legal complications. At the end of 2020, PTC had been implemented on railway routes that were required to do so. The Positive Train Control consists of a bundle of state-of-the-art technologies is meant to avoid accidents caused by human error, track or equipment malfunction, faulty movement of trains through a grade crossing, breaches on railroad tracks and other types of train operator errors. More precisely, PTC aims to prevent train-on-train collisions, deflections caused by excessive speed or other derailments on tracks where maintenance operations are underway. The technology uses a number of factors like weight and length of the train, track composition, train speed and train authorization in order to calculate the adequate stopping distance for a train. The PTC system includes an onboard locomotive system that monitors the position and speed of the train and triggers braking in case of speeding or unapproved train movement; a wayside system to check track signals, switches and track circuits for movement authorization; and a back office server that stores all relevant rail traffic information. Until 2015, *** billion U.S. dollars have been spent for the PTC deployment on over more than ***** of track miles and more than 4,500 locomotives. By 2020, the total costs had risen to more than ** billion U.S. dollars.

All impacts between railroad on-track equipment and highway users at a highway-rail grade crossing are reported by railroads to the FRA on Form FRA F 6180.57 Highway-Rail Grade Crossing Accident/Incident Report. This dataset is the source dataset and contains raw data values. It replaced the legacy data download (https://safetydata.fra.dot.gov/OfficeofSafety/publicsite/on_the_fly_download.aspx). To download data that contains data in a user-friendly human-readable format, please reference https://data.transportation.gov/Railroads/Highway-Rail-Grade-Crossing-Accident-Data/7wn6-i5b9. The data dictionary can be found here: https://datahub.transportation.gov/api/views/icqf-xf4w/files/531a212f-6b94-4403-9876-a6933a1469aa?download=true&filename=gxirfile_EFFECTIVE_060111%20(24).pdf. For information on how to filter and export data, please visit: https://data.transportation.gov/stories/s/Download-Export-and-Print-User-Guide/s8hj-vns8/. To view the data release schedule, please visit: https://data.transportation.gov/stories/s/Data-Release-Schedule/qfc9-tapk/.

October 2025 - Dataset View and OData/API Connection Change Notice - Please Read: https://data.transportation.gov/stories/s/6kdh-gsgx

Rail equipment accidents/incidents, collisions, derailments, fires, explosions, acts of God, or other events involving the operation of railroad on-track equipment (standing or moving) and causing reportable damages greater than the reporting threshold for the year in which the accident/incident occurred, must be reported by railroads to the FRA on Form FRA 6180.54 - Rail Equipment Accident/Incident.

Please note that this dataset displays unique train accidents. When an accident involves multiple railroads, each railroad must report its data. As a result, there can be multiple records for one accident. This dataset has been modified to pull and display one record for each accident. Highway-rail crossing incidents have also been removed from this dataset because they are not considered train accidents.

To see the full dataset with all reports with all data for all accidents, please visit https://data.transportation.gov/Railroads/Rail-Equipment-Accident-Incident-Data/85tf-25kj.

The data dictionary can be found here: https://datahub.transportation.gov/api/views/byy5-w977/files/ac84a1c8-56d4-4a21-85c2-3a33080ab720?download=true&filename=Form54_Data_Dictionary.xlsx.

For information on how to filter and export data, please visit: https://data.transportation.gov/stories/s/Download-Export-and-Print-User-Guide/s8hj-vns8/.

To view the data release schedule, please visit: https://data.transportation.gov/stories/s/Data-Release-Schedule/qfc9-tapk/.

In the United States, the number of rail fatalities in 2020 decreased to 767 in total. By comparison, the number of rail accidents and injuries saw a decline between 2019 and 2020 and was overall at its lowest in 2020 since 2013. Fatalities through modes of transport

Generally, over the past few years, rail fatalities have constituted a small proportion of the overall fatalities occurring from transportation; highway fatalities surpassed rail fatalities by far back in 2017. Car accidents represent the leading cause of death for young adults between the ages of 20 and 24 in the U.S., with over 5,000 reported fatal crashes within this age group in 2018. Rail safety in the U.S.

Following the Rail Safety Improvement Act of 2008, positive train control (PTC) technology is currently being installed nationwide across the rail network, with the deadline now pushed back to December 31, 2020. To date, PTC was fully implemented and in operation on Class I railroads. This PTC system sets out to prevent rail collisions, derailments due to excessive speed, and accidents caused by track switch errors. This Safety Act also regulates working hours for railroad workers, certifications held by certain members of the railroad workforce, and other safety measures.

The motivation to create this dataset stemmed from the recent (6th June 2023) train derailment in Odisha, India which resulted in reportedly 288 deaths. This is the deadliest train accident in India of this century and brought back focus on the safety of Indian Railways. While the train accident itself triggered political commentary on the state of safety of Indian Railways and resulted in salvos and ripostes across the political spectrum, I consciously decided to remove myself from the discourse and publish it once the sensationalism surrounding the tragedy subsides.

Challenges encountered to compile this dataset

Between 2010 and 2022, the number of people killed in railway accidents decreased by ** percent, a difference of over *** deaths. With the exception of 2016 and 2022, every following year saw a decrease in the number of rail accident-related fatalities. The most significant decrease occurred in 2020, when fatalities fell by **** percent year-on-year related with the reduction in passenger traffic caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Rail equipment accidents/incidents, collisions, derailments, fires, explosions, acts of God, or other events involving the operation of railroad on-track equipment (standing or moving) and causing reportable damages greater than the reporting threshold for the year in which the accident/incident occurred, must be reported by railroads to the FRA on Form FRA 6180.54 - Rail Equipment Accident/Incident.

This dataset is the source dataset and contains raw data values. It replaced the legacy data download (https://safetydata.fra.dot.gov/OfficeofSafety/publicsite/on_the_fly_download.aspx). To download data that contains data in a user-friendly human-readable format, please reference https://data.transportation.gov/Railroads/Rail-Equipment-Accident-Incident-Data/85tf-25kj.

The data dictionary can be found here: https://datahub.transportation.gov/api/views/aqxq-n5hy/files/ea00a728-94b0-43e7-8c11-8481f13170a7?download=true&filename=accfile_EFFECTIVE_060111%20(8).pdf.

For information on how to filter and export data, please visit: https://data.transportation.gov/stories/s/Download-Export-and-Print-User-Guide/s8hj-vns8/.

To view the data release schedule, please visit: https://data.transportation.gov/stories/s/Data-Release-Schedule/qfc9-tapk/.

This file contains reported cases of impacts between on-track equipment and any user of a public or private highway-rail intersection. National files from 1975 through the current year are available for download. In addition, individual files by State are available for the years 1991 through the current year.

In 2022, there were ** railway accidents in Indonesia. Train derailment is often the cause of railways accidents in the archipelago. It represents more than ** percent of all railway accidents in Indonesia in the past seven years.

In 2022, more railway accident fatalities occurred in Europe compared to the previous year. In 2022, *** people were killed in railway accidents in the EU, with Poland being the country with the highest number at *** fatalities, followed by Germany at *** fatalities.

"This file contains reported cases of collisions, derailments, fires, explosions, acts of God, or other events involving the operation of railroad on-track equipment and involving damages exceeding the reporting threshold for the year reported. National files from 1975 through the current year are available for download. In addition, individual files by State are available for the years 1991 through the current year.

In the fiscal year 2022, personal accidents were the most common type of railroad accident in Japan, adding up to *** accidents. Railway crossing accidents were the second most common type of accident.

This file contains reported cases of impacts between on-track equipment and any user of a public or private highway-rail intersection. National files from 1975 through the current year are available for download. In addition, individual files by State are available for the years 1991 through the current year.

This is the Rail Safety Overview Report (1.12), which contains summary level train accidents, highway-rail incidents, casualty and operational data.

Context

Few Days back I came across a news of 16 year old injured in car train crash and it made me wondered how many such accidents takes place all over the world and in US .So I started searching for datasets and finally I could find a country wide rail road crossing crashes dataset.

Content

This data is taken from US department of Transportation. The data is provided by FRA Office of Railroad Safety and dataset owner is Jared McCulloch. The dataset cover accidents from 1st January 1975 to 28 February 2021. It has 239487 rows and 141 columns. This data is extracted from the accident report form. Form57 The features consists of Geography, Time Frame, Type of Crossing, Type of Accident, Type of Vehicle, Position, Type of Highway User, Type of Equipment, and/or Highway User Action. High way user involved: Type A. Auto B. Truck C. Truck-trailer D. Pick-up truck E. Van F. Bus G. School bus H. Motorcycle J. Other motor vehicle K. Pedestrian M. Other (specify)

Complete data dictionary can be found here. https://data.transportation.gov/Railroads/Highway-Rail-Grade-Crossing-Accident-Data/7wn6-i5b9

Acknowledgements

Thank you FRA office of railroad safety and US department of Transportation.

Inspiration

This analysis can be used for numerous applications such as real-time accident prediction, studying accidents hotspot locations, casualty analysis and extracting cause and effect rules to predict accidents, and studying the impact of weather condition/ environmental condition on accident occurrence.

There is SO much to explore and discover in this data! - Task: Top 20 cities with highest numbers of accident - In which year maximum number collision happen? - In which month maximum number of accident happened? - Nearest railway station where maximum collision took place.? - Are their more accidents around sunrise/sunset? - Ratio of accident where car hit the train vs Ratio of accident where train hit the car.? - Total number of death in year 2021.? - Factors affecting accident ? - Did Number of accidents increased in 2000-2021 .?

In 2024, there were * railway safety accidents recorded in South Korea. The number of accidents continued to decrease over the years and reached a new low in 2024. Automatic screen doors are installed at the vast majority of train platforms in South Korea to help prevent accidents.