One month until the 14th International Level Crossing Awareness Day (ILCAD) launch conference on 9 June 2022, Denver (USA)

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International Level Crossing Awareness Day (ILCAD) is a worldwide initiative to improve awareness for level crossing safety. Since 2009, the campaign has been spearheaded by the International Union of Railways (UIC), the worldwide railway organisation, with the support of the railway community around the world.

About 50 countries usually take part in the annual ILCAD campaign.

Each year, a partner country hosts the launch event, providing the community with the opportunity to share good practices and projects to improve safety and reduce the accident toll.

This conference attracts railway industry representatives, road authorities, academics and many other interested parties from around the world who are working to raise awareness of the dangers surrounding level crossings.

In 2022, the international conference to launch the 14th ILCAD campaign will be hosted by the Association of American Railroads (AAR), the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) and Operation Lifesaver, Inc. (OLI) on 9 June in Denver, Colorado, USA. It will be preceded for the first time by a special session on “Trespass and Suicide Prevention” on 8 June and followed by a technical visit on 10 June.

After two successful online conferences during the Covid-19 period, this edition will once again be organised in person, with at least 150 participants and prominent speakers from Europe, USA, Canada and Argentina expected to discuss best practices, returns of experience and solutions to improve level crossing safety.

The themes of the 2022 launch conference are:

Technology – Technologies that can help educate people, raise awareness and, ultimately, prevent accidents at level crossings
Enforcement/regulations – Joint initiatives by the railways together with local authorities and the police force to encourage people to observe the Highway Code
Community outreach – The best means of making people aware of the safety risks at crossings

The detailed programme is available here:

Should you wish to participate, there is still time to register here:
In the meantime, many road and rail safety professionals are preparing their national safety awareness campaign using the UIC communication supports on level crossing safety or trespass prevention, available in several languages and comprising videos, posters, safety flyers, etc. which will be posted on social media, on the ILCAD website, handed over to the public, etc.

The 2022 campaign is targeting “vulnerable people” with the motto “Don’t put your life at risk, stay away from tracks!”

On 8 June, the day before the ILCAD conference, a half-day session dedicated to Trespass and Suicide Prevention is being organised for the first time and held at the Colorado Railroad Museum.

Trespass and suicide events impact the entire railway industry with their adverse effect on safety, performance, reputation, costs and efficiency. This is an issue that affects all parts of the business and society as a whole and is therefore a problem that we must tackle together.

The Trespass and Suicide Prevention session aims to share with our partners from industry the key activities being undertaken within the scope of existing programmes.

The objective of this session is to identify what exists, what else is needed, what individual organisations can do to help prevent trespassing and suicides, and how we can work much closer together on these issues.

The detailed programme is available here:

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