Page 16 - Operation Lifesaver Estonia / Annual Report 2012
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© Operation Lifesaver is a international, non-profit education and awareness program dedicated to ending
tragic collisions, fatalities and injuries at highway-rail grade crossings and on railroad rights of way.
Founded in Estonia on 19 November 2004 -
Estonia’s geographical location at the frontier of
the European Union and Russia has created good
opportunities for developing freight transit. During
the last decades, the transit of freight has developed
rapidly in our region.
The investments made in ports
and the smooth cooperation between land and sea
transport have resulted in the situation where we
have tens of thousands of freight tonnes moving
on our railway tracks. Naturally, all the links of the
transit chain are interested in making their work
more efficient – the ships would like to carry even
more goods, the ports would like to process these
goods quicker and the railway companies would like
to haul longer trains. All of that cannot be done on
the account of safety.
This is why AS EVR Cargo invests each year tens of
millions of euros in the safety of its locomotive and
wagon fleet. Only the rolling stock in impeccable
condition can be used for servicing longer trains
and making our activities more efficient. Even the
smallest mistake in ensuring safety can bring about
consequences that reverse the work done in several
years.
Unfortunately, even this is not enough for
guaranteeing complete safety. Our railway lines
go through villages and towns and cross with
both pedestrian and road-railway level crossings.
Therefore, it is particularly important for our
company to make sure that the people living in
the proximity of railways would know about the
dangers and how to avoid them. We also need to
pay a lot of attention to improving the awareness
of motor vehicle drivers and inform them about
railway related threats.
There are several ways for addressing railway safety.
One of them would be hiring people, mapping the
related issues, working out our own advertising
language and starting implementing our own
measures. Another way would be cooperating with
OLE whose active work really deserves support.
As the vanguard of the nation-wide railway safety
promotion work, OLE has established a remarkable
network of volunteer presenters, organised regular
railway safety campaigns and cooperated closely
with local governments and law enforcement
authorities. This allows the efficient use of available
know-how, cooperate with experts and optimise
costs.
For that reason AS EVR Cargo signed in 2012 an
accession agreement with OLE in order to join
our forces for making railways a safer place. The
attitudes of people do not change overnight – it
takes time and effort. The knowledge and skills of
our employees are now available to all the OLE’s
volunteers.
Even the smallest mistake in ensuring
safety can bring about consequences
that reverse the work done in several
years.
Ahto Altjõe
AS EVR Cargo, Chairman of Management Board
