Archives | www.nena.org | March 18, 2015

FRA Highway-Rail Grade Crossing Safety Database Update

The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) and National Law Enforcement Terminal System (NLETS) partnered to facilitate access to the FRA Highway-Rail Grade Crossing safety database.

With this new access, law enforcement and other first responders can access FRA highway-rail grade crossing safety database using their own system.
23,000 public safety agencies, more than one million first responders across the nation, Puerto Rico, Guam and the Virgin Islands can pull immediate grade crossing information, saving time in emergency situations.
Information available for direct inquiries concerning highway-rail grade crossing emergency information such as phone numbers, name of railroads and locations are presented to first responders within seconds.
Makes use of systems already in use across the force, no new systems to purchase
NLETS updates their database nightly creating the most update network for 1st responders.

By creating a mirror image of the database at NLETS, over one million NLETS users will have access to valuable railroad crossing data using their existing equipment and network connectivity.

In the past, law enforcement’s access to the FRA database was limited to the Internet site http://safetydata.fra.dot.gov.

All highway-rail grade crossings have a United Sates Department of Transportation (USDOT) number assigned and the query will generate a result set with all of the relevant crossing information (such as the street information and GPS coordinates for dispatch, railway company contact information to stop service, etc.)

When an accident or other event occurs at a railroad crossing, the Public Safety Answering Point/911 call center (PSAP), or the responding officer would need to have a working knowledge of the website and access to the internet from their system. In most cases, law enforcement networks are segregated from the Internet to meet FBI CJIS security requirements. Allowing users within the secure environment to access information out of the network is problematic and therefore generally discouraged.

Now NLETS maintains a mirror image of FRA’s highway-rail grade crossing database, allowing the law enforcement community instant access to FRA’s database. This will allow the law enforcement community instant access to valuable information concerning highway-grade crossings such as the emergency notification phone numbers.

Nearly 23,000 law enforcement, justice and public safety agencies in the United States and Canada have access to the secure NLETS network and system, and more than one million individuals use the system to perform 1.5 billion queries annually. Personnel are trained and certified by their agencies on the data resources available through NLETS, including driver and vehicle queries, warrant confirmations, criminal history record information, etc.

For additional information, contact your NLETS State representative

National Emergency Number Association
Alexandria, VA
800.332.3911
P: 202.466.4911
Fax: 202.618.6370
www.nena.org