Data · Rail casualties
Railroad casualties, county by county
How many people were hurt or killed in railroad operations in each county, which of them were railroad employees, passengers, trespassers or motorists at a crossing, and how many train accidents happened there. We count them from the reports railroads send to the Federal Railroad Administration, once per report, and check every county against the state totals and against FRA's own raw tables.
What is in this dataset?
Railroad casualties, highway-rail grade crossing incidents and train accidents that railroads reported to the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA), 2021 through July 2026, for 2,315 counties with at least one report, 50 states and the US: 41,307 casualties (5,136 deaths and 36,171 nonfatal injuries or illnesses) from Form 55a, split by who was hurt (railroad employee on duty or off duty, contractor or volunteer, passenger, trespasser, other non-trespasser), 12,345 crossing incidents with the people killed and injured (Form 57) and 14,018 rail equipment accidents (Form 54), with the casualty count of each incident year. FRA's county codes are Census FIPS codes; counties retired since keep their old code. Counts come from FRA's rolling six-year views on data.transportation.gov and are aggregated server-side; no narrative or person-level field is read.
Use it to size railroad-injury and crossing-accident work in the counties a firm serves: how many railroad employees, passengers, trespassers and motorists were hurt or killed there, how crossing incidents compare with train accidents, and how a county compares with its state. Agents can look up a state and its counties, compare up to ten states, or search a county by name.
- Records
- 2,366
- Look up by
- 51
- state
- Primary source
- 2,366
The letters are explained in what P, S, D and U mean.
Where does the data come from?
Aggregated server-side (SoQL group by state, county, incident year and person class) from three views on data.transportation.gov: Form 55a casualties (bx7m-yn3v), Form 57 highway-rail crossing incidents (uwah-u9bn) and Form 54 rail equipment accidents (jm8x-ccxs). The views cover six calendar years and roll forward: a year that leaves the view stays in the dataset as last read, and years still in the view are re-read every month because railroads can amend their reports for five years. County codes are padded to Census FIPS and checked against the shared crosswalks. A gate checks that the aggregates add up to the views' row counts, that counties add up to states and states to the US, compares every state with FRA's raw Form 55a and Form 57 source tables, and re-counts fifty random county-years from the live view.
- Period covered
- January 1, 2021 to July 31, 2026
- Places
- The whole US, states and counties
- How often we refresh it
- Every month
- Records read
- October 29, 2026
Official sources
- U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Railroad Administration (Office of Railroad Safety), by official API. Listed on data.transportation.gov with license 'Public Domain' (Form 55a, Form 57) or 'Public Domain U.S. Government' (Form 54); a work of the U.S. government (17 U.S.C. 105)..
- U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Railroad Administration (Office of Railroad Safety), by official API. Listed on data.transportation.gov with license 'Public Domain' (Form 55a, Form 57) or 'Public Domain U.S. Government' (Form 54); a work of the U.S. government (17 U.S.C. 105)..
- U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Railroad Administration (Office of Railroad Safety), by official API. Listed on data.transportation.gov with license 'Public Domain' (Form 55a, Form 57) or 'Public Domain U.S. Government' (Form 54); a work of the U.S. government (17 U.S.C. 105)..
- U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Railroad Administration (Office of Railroad Safety), by official API. Listed on data.transportation.gov with license 'Public Domain' (Form 55a, Form 57) or 'Public Domain U.S. Government' (Form 54); a work of the U.S. government (17 U.S.C. 105). Used only as the second-source control in check.py (Form 55a source table)..
- U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Railroad Administration (Office of Railroad Safety), by official API. Listed on data.transportation.gov with license 'Public Domain' (Form 55a, Form 57) or 'Public Domain U.S. Government' (Form 54); a work of the U.S. government (17 U.S.C. 105). Used only as the second-source control in check.py (Form 57 source table)..
The sources the records cite most
What does a record look like?
-
United States: railroads reported 41,307 casualties to FRA, 2021 through July 2026 (5,136 deaths, 36,171 nonfatal injuries or illnesses), including 19,837 to railroad employees. Highway-rail crossing incidents: 12,345 (1,650 people killed, 4,280 injured). Train accidents: 14,018.
Status P · checked October 29, 2026 · source: FRA Form 55a casualty data, 6-year view (data.transportation.gov)
-
Texas: railroads reported 2,551 casualties to FRA, 2021 through July 2026 (495 deaths, 2,056 nonfatal injuries or illnesses), including 965 to railroad employees. Highway-rail crossing incidents: 1,461 (127 people killed, 432 injured). Train accidents: 1,666.
Status P · checked October 29, 2026 · source: FRA Form 55a casualty data, 6-year view (data.transportation.gov)
-
Illinois: railroads reported 2,588 casualties to FRA, 2021 through July 2026 (300 deaths, 2,288 nonfatal injuries or illnesses), including 1,366 to railroad employees. Highway-rail crossing incidents: 684 (148 people killed, 226 injured). Train accidents: 997.
Status P · checked October 29, 2026 · source: FRA Form 55a casualty data, 6-year view (data.transportation.gov)
-
California: railroads reported 3,661 casualties to FRA, 2021 through July 2026 (1,086 deaths, 2,575 nonfatal injuries or illnesses), including 1,103 to railroad employees. Highway-rail crossing incidents: 988 (277 people killed, 303 injured). Train accidents: 874.
Status P · checked October 29, 2026 · source: FRA Form 55a casualty data, 6-year view (data.transportation.gov)
The full records add the dates, the quoted source text and every field in the CSV and JSON files below.
What each of the 35 main columns means
jurisdiction- Two-letter code of the state, DC or territory, or US
level- county, state (states and DC) or us
county- 5-digit county FIPS code (vintage 2025; Connecticut's retired counties keep their old codes); empty for other levels
countyName- County name as the Census Bureau writes it
stateName- State name
value- Same as casualties
unit- What the value counts
yearsFrom- First incident year kept
yearsTo- Last incident year kept
dataThrough- Date of the latest casualty in FRA's Form 55a view
casualties- Railroad casualties (deaths plus nonfatal injuries and illnesses) reported on Form 55a
deaths- Casualties that were fatal
injuries- Nonfatal injuries and illnesses
employee_on_duty- Casualties of railroad employees on duty
employee_off_duty- Casualties of railroad employees not on duty
contractor_volunteer- Casualties of contractors and volunteers (on duty or not)
passenger- Casualties of passengers on trains
trespasser- Casualties of trespassers
nontrespasser- Casualties of non-trespassers on or off railroad property
other_person- Casualties with no person class on the report
employee_casualties- employee_on_duty + employee_off_duty
employee_deaths- Deaths among railroad employees (on or off duty)
crossing_incidents- Highway-rail grade crossing incidents reported on Form 57
crossing_killed- People killed in those incidents (Form 57 total killed)
crossing_injured- People injured in those incidents (Form 57 total injured)
train_accidents- Rail equipment accidents and incidents above FRA's damage threshold (Form 54)
unplaced- State records: reports FRA gives no usable county for (included in the state totals)
casualties_2021- Casualties with an incident date in 2021
casualties_2022- Casualties with an incident date in 2022
casualties_2023- Casualties with an incident date in 2023
casualties_2024- Casualties with an incident date in 2024
casualties_2025- Casualties with an incident date in 2025
casualties_2026- Casualties with an incident date in 2026 (through July)
effectiveFrom- First day of the first incident year kept
effectiveTo- Date of the latest casualty
How do I use it in my own tools?
railcasualties_lookup- For one two-letter state code (or US): railroad casualties, crossing incidents and train accidents reported to FRA for the state and every county in it, by who was hurt, with deaths and nonfatal injuries.
railcasualties_compare- The FRA railroad casualty records of up to 10 states (two-letter codes) or US side by side: casualties, deaths, railroad employees hurt, crossing incidents and train accidents.
railcasualties_search- FRA railroad casualty records whose text matches the words given, such as a county name ("Harris County"), a state name or a 5-digit county FIPS code.
How to cite this dataset
You can reuse, adapt and republish this data, including commercially, under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license (CC BY 4.0). The only condition is that you credit Probative and link to the source.
- Version
- 1.0.0, released October 29, 2026
- Every version
- 10.5281/zenodo.23753015 (always points to the newest)
- License
- CC BY 4.0
Download the data
- CSV: rail-casualties.csv 2004 KB · one row per record (columns in README.txt)
- JSON: rail-casualties.json 4914 KB · every record with its sources
Free, no email or login. The files are hosted on this site and Zenodo, a public research archive.
Suggested citation
Probative. (2026). Railroad casualties and crossing incidents by county (FRA Forms 55a, 57 and 54) (Version 1.0.0) [Data set]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.23753016
Credit line for a chart, table or article
Source: Probative, Railroad casualties and crossing incidents by county (FRA Forms 55a, 57 and 54), version 1.0.0, https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.23753016, licensed CC BY 4.0.
Add to a reference manager (Zotero, Mendeley, EndNote)
Not legal advice. These are counts of events railroads reported to the Federal Railroad Administration, kept for research and market sizing. A report is not a finding of fault, and it says nothing about whether anyone has a claim; a railroad employee's injury claim has its own federal rules and deadlines. Questions about an injury are for a licensed attorney.
What changed recently?
- 2026-10-29 · Railroad casualties, highway-rail crossing incidents and train accidents reported to the Federal Railroad Administration, 2021 through July 2026, for every county with a report, every state and the US: 41,307 casualties in all. (source)
The full log is in changes.json.
What are the limits?
- A report is a railroad's account to the regulator. It is not a finding of fault and says nothing about who is responsible or whether anyone has a claim.
- Railroads report casualties of their employees and contractors, passengers and others hurt in railroad operations. Injuries that did not meet the reporting rules are not here, so a low count can mean few reportable events rather than a safe line.
- The source covers a rolling window of recent years and the latest year is partial. Railroads can still amend a report for years after it is filed, so recent counts can change; we re-read the whole window every month and log any change to a published figure.
- A report is placed by the county code the railroad entered. A few reports carry no usable county and appear only in the state total, which says so.
- Counts are events in a county, not residents of it: the people hurt may live anywhere, and a line that crosses several counties is counted where the event happened.
- Employee injuries on a railroad can fall under a federal employer-liability statute rather than state workers' compensation; these counts do not say which applies to any case.
- Records older than 45 days since their last check are marked
stalein the files until we re-check them. Every confirmed error we fix is listed in the data corrections log.
Found a wrong value? Report an error with the record id and the source that shows the right value.
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