CONWAY, SC (WBTW)- The Conway Police Department will participate in Operation Clear Track for the first time today.
The event is part of Rail Safety Week and is sponsored by Amtrack and the Operation Lifesaver Organization.
Officers will be at the railway on Sherwood Park and what officials call the five-points intersection talking to drivers and passing out safety information cards with reminders of what to do when near a railway.
“What we call the five-points area here is probably one of the most talked about rail crossings in Conway, simply because there are so many people who pull up to it and are so unsure about how to navigate through it,” Conway Police Chief Dale Long said.
Some of the safety reminders include knowing it can take more than a mile for a train to come to a stop, understanding that trains always have the right of way and not to walk or drive over lowered grade crossing gates.
“People go walking down the road, think there is some cool pictures to be taken on rail crossings and rail bridges but that’s actually private property and the railway does own that right of way there,” Chief Long said.
More than 600 law enforcement agencies nationwide participate in Operation Clear track and about 30 of those are in South Carolina.
For more on the Operation Clear Track initiative, click here.
