Bill Text: IL HR1020 | 2025-2026 | 104th General Assembly | Introduced

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Bill Title: Declares the week of September 21 through September 27, 2026 as See Tracks? Think Train Week in the State of Illinois. Encourages all citizens to recognize the importance of rail safety education.

Sponsorship: Partisan Bill (Republican 1)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2026-08-28 - Filed with the Clerk by Rep. Dennis Tipsword [HR1020 Detail]

Download: Illinois-2025-HR1020-Introduced.html

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HOUSE RESOLUTION
WHEREAS, See Tracks? Think Train Week is to be held across
the United States from September 21 through September 27,
2026; and
WHEREAS, During 2025, 2,273 highway-rail grade crossing
collisions resulted in 764 personal injuries and were
responsible for 287 fatalities across the United States; and
WHEREAS, Educating and informing the public about rail
safety, including reminding the public that railroad
rights-of-way are private property, enhancing public awareness
of the dangers associated with highway-rail grade crossings,
ensuring pedestrians and motorists are looking and listening
while near railways as well as obeying established traffic
laws, will reduce the number of avoidable fatalities and
injuries caused by incidents involving trains and citizens;
and
WHEREAS, The International Association of Chiefs of
Police, Operation Lifesaver, Inc., the United States
Department of Transportation, and all local, county, state,
and railroad law enforcement officers, first responders, and
railroad corporations are committed to partnering together in
an effort to educate at the national and state level all

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aspects of railroad safety and to enforce applicable laws in
support of National See Tracks? Think Train Week; and
WHEREAS, Operation Lifesaver is an active, national
continuing public education program designed to increase the
awareness of rail safety education; the organization is
sponsored cooperatively by federal, state, and local
government agencies, civic and business organizations, the
nation's railroads, and other groups interested in highway
safety; and
WHEREAS, The Illinois Operation Lifesaver program was
founded in 1976 with the goal of reducing collisions,
injuries, and deaths at highway-rail crossings and along
railroad rights-of-way; in the organization's first year of
operation, over 900 railroad incidents occurred at public
highway-rail crossings, resulting in 103 fatalities; by 2025,
that number had been reduced to 134 collisions at highway-rail
crossings, resulting in 29 fatalities; approximately 70 people
die on and around railroad tracks and property in Illinois
each year; and
WHEREAS, There are few incidents that occur that affect a
community and its residents as gravely as someone being killed
by a train; such needless events greatly impact the families
and friends of those people killed in addition to the train

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crews, railroad employees, and first responders involved;
therefore, be it
RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ONE
HUNDRED FOURTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that
we declare the week of September 21 through September 27, 2026
as See Tracks? Think Train Week in the State of Illinois; and
be it further
RESOLVED, That we encourage all citizens to recognize the
importance of rail safety education; and be it further
RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be
presented to the Illinois Commerce Commission.