Once again, the area is dealing with the tragedy of a young person whose life has been cut short because of an accident on a local railway.

Elizabeth Vale, 21, was struck by a Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority commuter rail train on the tracks near her Mansfield home around 7:30 p.m. Saturday. The train had just left the Mansfield station bound for Providence. A lifelong Mansfield resident, Vale was probably using the railroad tracks as a shortcut to her home, according to local police.

A 2006 graduate of Attleboro's Bishop Feehan High School and a star on the school's debate team, she was attending Bridgewater State College this fall.

She is the third person in the area this year alone killed in a railroad accident.

Last January, Robert Castro, 15, of Easton, was killed by an Amtrak Acela train at the Mansfield station. In September, Hector Cortes, 59, of Providence, was struck by a Boston-bound MBTA train in Central Falls, R.I. In May, a man escaped death by inches when he was caught between a speeding Acela train and a barrier fence at the Attleboro station. The man was badly hurt. According to statistics kept by the federal government nearly 500 pedestrians every year die as a result of encounters with trains, a figure that has held steady while other fatal accident numbers have declined.

In South Florida, where there rail-related deaths have reached a 20-year high, officials have started an awareness campaign. Before the end the school year, rail officials sent letters to parents urging them to talk to their children and planned a program at local boys and girls clubs this fall.

That program and ones like it in other areas are designed to hammer home a few basic lessons.

Crossing a railroad track or walking on the right of way is dangerous.

Trains are large, powerful, fast and cannot stop on a dime.

If you are hit by a train, it will not just hurt you. It will almost certainly kill you.

New commuter rail lines are planned in the area and the demand for public transport is likely to increase the number of trains passing along local lines. Trains and their associated risks are going to become more common.

And it's important that public safety officials, schools and the general public take those hazards seriously.

Operation Lifesaver, a program sponsored by a coalition of railroad industry groups, is a resource for information and training programs.

Many of their programs are especially aimed at schools and school children. More information is available at the organization's Web site at oli.org/.