The train’s in Costa Rica are constantly involved in different accidents, during the first semester of 2018,  7 people died because of accidents with the train, 3 of them as a result of collisions and 4 that were ran over, in general, the country registers close to 100 mishaps involving the train every year.

The causes of the accidents are many, some are due to lack of proper signs and infrastructure, but many times they are the result of drivers and pedestrians not paying enough attention or disregarding the preventive road signs.

The Ministry of Public Works and Transportation (MOPT) announced that starting this September the first security devices will be installed at 17 railroad crossings in the province of Cartago, with the purpose of improving road safety.

The works are being coordinated by the General Direction of Traffic Engineering of the MOPT and are financed by the Costa Rican Road Safety Council (Cosevi), in total the project includes the intervention of 91 railroad crossways, 49 located in the corridor San Jose-Cartago and 42 in the stretch San Jose-Pavas-Heredia.

Safety barriers and traffic lights at the railroad crossways are part of the work planned, all of the devices installed will work with solar energy.

“The project was divided in stages so that the roadway cross-ways that we work on can operate without the need of completing the total number of intersections, some security devices must be intercommunicated so they ‘alert’ among them when the train is getting near, in these cases the work is done by groups and not individually”, explained Diego Rugama from the Ministry of Public Works and Transportations.

While the installation of barriers and lights is being carried out, other works will also begin, including excavation work, trenches, wiring, among others.

The total investment needed will reach almost $8 million USD. The work will not affect the operation of the train, since much of it will be done in hours when the train is not in operation.

The objective is, of course, to reduce the number of accidents with the train, however, in the past, when security barriers and signals have been placed in San Jose and Heredia these have been quickly destroyed/defaced or are constantly disregarded.