Safety Action Plan

On December 14, 2020, the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) issued the Final Rule for 49 CFR Part 234, requiring all States and the District of Columbia to develop and implement highway-rail grade crossing action plans. The Iowa DOT's Safety Action Plan 2022-2026 will be reviewed annually and modified as necessary.

Rail Crossing Safety Action Plan

The previous Iowa DOT’s SAP for calendar years 2018-2022 is available by contacting the DOT Rail Office. Implementation goals, objectives and timelines have been identified. Additionally, the Iowa DOT Rail Team will meet regularly with stakeholders and seek input regarding the current action items.

Short-term Actions

Funding Programs & Activities

Encourage highway-railroad at-grade crossing closures (in general and in coordination with grade crossing signal and/or surface work).
Establish strong efforts to identify pedestrian and trespasser hot-spots.
Apply for discretionary grants to change infrastructure to alleviate issues in the identified hot-spots.
Set up a trespasser reporting web page. This project is still in progress.

Education

Take part in outreach and training for high schools, universities, fairs, scouts, driver’s education, etc.
Mandate rail safety training for Iowa DOT employees doing field work.

Enhanced Data Collection & Analysis

Develop a GIS railroad crossing accidents map for Iowa. This is being done at the state and federal level. We have been participating with the FRA on the extensive update of the GIS database.

2023 Action Plan Update

Rail Crossing Safety Action Plan Flyer

Accidents reported in Iowa

Railroad Crossing Collisions in Iowa 1980-2022

Railroads are federally mandated to report railroad crossing accidents to the FRA by submitting the DOT Accident/ Incident Report form FRA F 6180.57. These forms are available for the public to download through the FRA’s Office of Safety Analysis website along with the railroad crossing inventory forms.

Users type in the railroad crossing DOT number and select whether the accident or inventory forms are generated in PDF format. Information from accident forms submitted to the FRA is aggregated into statistical reporting and made available through the FRA GX-Dash website. Accidents reported in Iowa can be viewed here.

FRA Accident Prediction Tool (GXAPS) provides what the likelihood for an accident at a railroad crossing or set of crossings is (based upon the information in the railroad crossing inventory record). View the FRA’s GXAPS Tool

Iowa Rail