Drivers who ignore crossing signals in Vanderburgh County, Indiana, will receive tickets rather than warnings during Indiana Rail Safety Week, according to the Vanderburgh County Sheriff's Office.

The enforcement shift marks a change from the customary practice of issuing warnings during targeted safety campaigns. Deputies will station themselves at railroad crossings across the county and cite any motorist who crosses tracks illegally, whether by circumventing lowered gates, driving around flashing signals, or stopping on the tracks.

Why ticket instead of warn?

The sheriff's office is pairing the enforcement action with the statewide observance of Indiana Rail Safety Week, an annual campaign intended to reduce collisions between vehicles and trains. Law enforcement agencies across Indiana use the week to focus attention on grade-crossing violations, which rank among the most preventable causes of rail-related deaths and injuries.

By moving directly to citations, Vanderburgh County deputies aim to give the safety message immediate consequences. A warning, in the view of the agency, leaves the driver's behavior unchanged; a ticket creates a record, a fine, and a stronger incentive to obey crossing signals the next time.

What behavior is being targeted?

The enforcement covers the violations that consistently produce grade-crossing collisions:

• Driving around or through lowered crossing gates
• Ignoring flashing lights and audible warning bells
• Stopping on or immediately before the tracks while traffic ahead is blocked
• Attempting to beat a train across an intersection

Each of these maneuvers places a vehicle in the path of a train that cannot stop quickly. A freight train traveling at typical operating speeds can require a mile or more of track to come to a halt, which means the avoidance burden falls almost entirely on the road user.

Who is carrying out the enforcement?

Vanderburgh County sheriff's deputies will conduct the crossing details during Indiana Rail Safety Week. The campaign frames the ticketing operation as the enforcement component of a broader public-education effort, consistent with how other Indiana agencies have handled the observance in past years.

The county's decision to skip the warning phase and go straight to citations signals that deputies regard grade-crossing violations as serious traffic offenses rather than technical infractions. Motorists traveling through Vanderburgh County during the campaign should expect that any observed violation will result in a cited offense.

What happens after the week ends?

Indiana Rail Safety Week runs as a fixed annual campaign, but the violations it targets remain enforceable year-round under Indiana traffic law. Drivers in Vanderburgh County can expect deputies to continue responding to crossing violations outside the campaign window, with the week itself serving as the period of concentrated, high-visibility enforcement.