GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. — Vera Mulder said her Fruita art camp students would turn a train safety lesson into an art project after a Monday train ride to De Beque.

Each year Operation Lifesaver, a national non-profit rail safety education group, takes passengers on day train rides, while teaching about how to be safe at rail road crossings.

The train rides are open to anyone, said state coordinator Tracy L Rossbach. This year six trips were offered out of Grand Junction, four from Delta, and five trips beginning in Glenwood Springs.

After Mulder attended a train ride last Saturday with Fruita city council members, she asked the engineer if she could score a ride for her art students.

The kids were given a 30-minute safety talk before boarding the 1940s restored train for an hour-and-a-half trip to De Beque.

From train car windows “they saw blue herons, geese, ducks, and deer,” Mulder said. “They got a good look at Mt. Garfield.”

According to Operation Lifesaver's Web site, a person or vehicle is hit by a train approximately every two hours in the United States.

About half of all crossing collisions occur at highway-rail intersections with flashing lights and, or gates.

Operation Lifesaver was established in 1972 to end these collisions, deaths and injuries.

The programs are sponsored cooperatively by federal, state, and local government agencies, highway safety organizations, and the nation's railroads.