A freight train will crash into a car Friday morning and it won’t be an accident.

Operation Lifesaver hopes the demonstration will train visitors to practice driving safety.

Effingham Police and Fire departments, Effingham Railroad and the Illinois branch of Operation Lifesaver are sponsoring the event, which will feature a live accident demonstration.

“Our goal is to save people’s lives,” said Rob Doyle, associate physical education professor and Operation Lifesaver member. “Hopefully the demonstration will help people remember.”

Doyle is hoping the audience members will remember the demonstration when approaching railroad tracks.

An emergency team comprised of Effingham police and fire departments and an air-lift crew will react to the “accident” which will be complete with volunteers acting as “victims.”

The “victims” will have make-up injuries similar to those received in similar accidents.

“If you get hit by a train, the chances of dying are pretty big,” Doyle said.

The demonstration will show what kind of injuries come from getting caught in a train’s track.

“People try to race through and beat the train,” Doyle said. “In that situation, if it’s a tie, you lose.”

For this event, the train will contain only six cars and will be traveling at Effingham Railroad’s legal speed limit of 10 mph.

“There are trains that travel with more than 100 cars going 50-60 miles per hour,” Doyle said. “It can take more than a mile for them to stop on the tracks.”

Driver’s Education classes from within a 40-mile radius were notified of the event and 200-300 high school students are expected to attend.

“There will be bleachers set up,” Doyle said. “Anyone who wants to go down and see it is welcome; it’s a good ringside view.”

The demonstration will be held just west of Effingham Industrial Park from 9-10 a.m. and will continue afterward at Effingham mall with a public informational. A group of 20-30 volunteers planned the event.

Doyle said a test run was filmed last Friday. He rode in the train’s engine car as it hit the stopped vehicle at a speed under 10 mph.

The car was pushed more than 200 feet before the train could stop.

“I was in the locomotive and if I wasn’t looking out the window, I never would have known we hit something,” he said. “The train car didn’t jolt or anything.”

Operation Lifesaver is a safety promotion program that began in the 1970s.

The demonstration site can be found by traveling south on Interstate 57 to the third Effingham, going east on West Fayette, turning right at the second light to South Raney and going south approximately one mile.

Krispy Kreme will be supplying breakfast at the event.

City Editor Carly Mullady can be reached at [email protected].