Milwaukee Rail Crossing Safety Week; new tech helps increase safety

MILWAUKEE - The Milwaukee Fire Department announced on Monday, Sept. 23, showed off new technology that will help firefighters in their efforts to avoid railroad crossings blocked by trains. Officials also indicated how the community can play a role in preventing rail crossing incidents.

A news release says there have been four rail-related fatalities in southeast Wisconsin in the last six weeks – compared to four in all of 2023 throughout the entire state. According to the Wisconsin Department of Transportation (WisDOT), Milwaukee has three of the top 30 most dangerous railroad crossings in the state. 

"An average freight train travels at 50 miles an hour, takes over a mile to bring these things to a stop," said Milwaukee Fire Chief Aaron Lipski.

Milwaukee Fire Chief Aaron Lipski

Additionally, the top ten rail crossings in the city handle over 150,000 vehicle crossings each day, highlighting the potential for danger if safety protocols are not followed.

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In light of this information, the Milwaukee Fire Department has partnered with LinqThingz, a southeast Wisconsin-based leader in Predictive Mobility Solutions. 

LinqThingz officials presented how their train intelligence technology is enhancing the safety and efficiency of emergency response operations in Milwaukee.

"This unique sensor system uses multiple sensors along with machine learning, to get the best understanding of what it's seeing in the real world environment. This is what we call this bio-mimicking technology because like animals, it uses multiple senses, ears, eyes and other types of sensing technology to give a solution, which is the highest amount of fault mitigation and highest accuracy," said LinqThingz CEO Kurt Brandt. 

LinqThingz CEO Kurt Brandt

Chief Lipski said this new tech will help their firefighters know the quickest way to get to a scene – without having to worry about whether they will be delayed by a train at a railroad crossing. 

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"This is a southeast Wisconsin based leader in predictive mobility solutions," said Chief Lipski. "It uses real-time advance notifications of train crossings to improve safety and situational awareness. Link things provides cutting edge train intelligence, technology enhancing and safety and efficiency of emergency responses, saving minutes when seconds count."

Chief Lipski said the tech provided by LinqThingz was vetted during the Republican National Convention in July. He said it was successful.

"It's a simple and extremely complex system all in one," Lipski said.