The St. John Parish Sheriff’s Office joined Amtrak Police and Operation Lifesaver Inc. for the third annual Operation Clear Track event being observed nationwide September 21-27, 2020. Sheriff Mike Tregre reminds motorists to pay attention at railroad crossing and always expect a train. During Operation Clear Track, Sheriff Tregre and traffic officers spent the morning at “high incident” rail crossing locations, Spruce and Cardinal streets in LaPlace, handing out railroad safety cards to motorists.According to Operation Lifesaver, each year about 2,000 people are killed or injured in grade crossing and trespassing incidents nationwide. That means every three hours, a person or vehicle comes in contact with a train.The goal of today’s national railroad safety initiative is to raise public awareness in every community about staying off the tracks, which is the focal point of Operation Lifesaver’s “Stop Track Tragedies” campaign, which can be seen at stoptracktragedies.org.