Operation Lifesaver was born in Idaho in 1972 after Union Pacific Railroad and community leaders in the state decided to band together and fight the growing number of highway-rail grade crossing crashes, injuries and fatalities with a public education program. The result? At the end of the first year, the highway-rail grade crossing fatality rate dropped a resounding 39 percent. 

Soon after the benefits of OL were realized and more and more states started their efforts, Operation Lifesaver Inc. was born.  Headquartered in Alexandria, VA, OL Inc. provides the basis of the programs that are used by the state OL organizations in the 48 contiguous states and Alaska. 

The base year for MassOL was 1982, which is when we first began organized efforts.  In 1990 we became officially organized and we named our first state coordinator and a board of directors was also established that year.

Today, our committee consists of people from rail labor, local government, state government, bus transportation, transit, regional railroads, short line railroads, and passenger railroads.