OLI Releases 50th Anniversary Annual Report
Written by Marybeth Luczak, Executive Editor
Operation Lifesaver, Inc. (OLI) has published its 2022 Annual Report, celebrating 50 years of empowering the public “to make safe choices when driving or walking near tracks and trains.”
Since OLI’s founding in 1972, collisions at highway/rail grade crossings across the United States have dropped 82% due to education, engineering and enforcement efforts, according to the nonprofit organization.
OLI’s 32-page report (scroll down to download) highlights 2022 events, training classes, public outreach, and Rail Safety Week and provides a summary of grant projects, a financial overview and a list of the organization’s partnerships.
Grants from the Federal Railroad Administration, Federal Highway Administration, Federal Transit Administration, and the Posner Foundation of Pittsburgh not only helped OLI to develop materials and assets such as public service announcements (PSAs), brochures, billboards, print ads and social media graphics for key audiences in 2022, but also funded a variety of public awareness and education campaigns by state OLI programs across the U.S.
In 2022, five new OLI authorized volunteer (OLAV) coaches and 10 OLAV coach trainers completed certification classes and 269 new OLAVs were trained by coaches to share the rail safety message. Additionally, 187 of OLI’s Railroad Investigation and Safety Courses (RISC) were held for 3,507 first responders, and 11 additional training sessions were held certifying 63 RISC Instructors and Instructor Trainers.
Also in 2022, OLI released online rail safety pledges for both adults and kids, including a downloadable certificate as well as an option encouraging adults to share the pledge on their social networks. More than 2,500 people took the pledge.
“Our 2022 Annual Report shows the many ways that OLI and its rail safety partners celebrated Operation Lifesaver’s 50th Anniversary, including sharing the rail safety message on locomotives and railcars,” OLI Executive Director Rachel Maleh said. “We also created a website landing page with videos from federal safety partners, an interactive timeline, a feature spotlighting 50 OLAVs, and 12 Train Track Trivia online games. Social media efforts included posts about those 50 volunteers as well as 50 Throwback Thursday social media posts highlighting noteworthy people, materials and events of the last 50 years.
“I am indebted to the many safety partners who make our lifesaving work possible: our Board Members, State Coordinators, Coaches, Instructors, Trainers and our Volunteers as well as federal partners, state partners, rail companies, transportation and safety organizations, the Posner Foundation of Pittsburgh, law enforcement agencies, other first responders and many, many more.”
