Students at Roseville High School swarmed the wreckage, eyes wide and mouths agape.

On Thursday, The California Department of Transportation in conjunction with Amtrak California presented students with an up close and personal look at what happens when a train hits a car.

According to the Federal Railroad Administration, California has the highest number of train incidents involving both vehicles and pedestrians. Last year in California, there were 109 train related fatalities said Caltrans manager Pat Merrill.

“After seeing the numbers come in from last year we knew there was more we needed to do to protect our drivers,” Merrill said.

Operating a cell phone or MP3 player or attempting to out run an oncoming train are the most common hazards facing teen drivers and pedestrians, Merrill said.

Even though students knew the crushed car was a dramatization courtesy of Caltrans and Amtrak’s “Respect the Rails” tour, evidence of the potential consequences of disobeying railroad signs had some soon-to-be drivers rethinking their attitude behind the wheel.

“I think teens need to see this because we tend to be overeager behind the wheel,” said sophomore Joshua Gray. “We like to drive fast and if we’re late for school we aren’t aware of our surroundings and this shows what could happen.”

Roseville High School students aren’t strangers to railroad crossings as the Union Pacific tracks run right in front of the campus. However, some, like Mercedes Rivera, admitted to not fully understanding the possibilities of what happens when drivers try to out speed an oncoming train.

“Most trains travel anywhere from 60-75 miles per hour and it can take a moving train up to a mile to stop,” Merrill said. “If a car is hit at 60 miles per hour it explodes and it’s almost always a fatality.”

To reenact a train collision with a vehicle, Caltrans presented students with a car that had been bulldozed and crushed in on one side to show as authentically as possible what happens when they disregard railroad-crossing signs.

Roseville junior Adrienne Fitts is well versed in railroad safety, thanks to her father who works with trains.

“My dad has told me stories about cars stuck on the tracks but I’ve never seen what actually happens to the car afterwards,” Fitts said.

Although she has yet to start driving herself to school, Fitts said the dramatization coupled with the stories and videos she’s seen of actual occurrences has affected her enough to play it safe around the tracks.

“It takes a mile for a train to stop. That’s a really long time,” Fitts said. “I’ll wait for the train if I’m late. It’s not that important.”

Students were invited to observe the crash scene during their lunch period and take a rail safety quiz for the chance to win a $5,000 college scholarship.

The inaugural “Respect the Rails” tour began earlier this month and is scheduled to continue to more than 20 Northern California high schools by the end of the year.

Megan Wood can be reached at meganw@goldcountrymedia.com