Marlins Pitcher Dontrelle Willis (aka D-Train) Unveils New Outdoor Medium and Advertising Campaign

MIAMI - Operation Lifesaver, Inc. , national, non-profit, rail safety program, and Major League Baseball’s Florida Marlins today launched an innovative partnership to promote safe behavior around railroad tracks and trains. The partnership introduced “rolling billboards” on freight train rail cars that will travel along Florida’s East Coast carrying a public service message from Operation Lifesaver, since approximately 95 percent of rail-related deaths in the U.S. are the result of train-vehicle collisions and illegal trespassing.

“This new mobile outdoor medium will help us educate the public about the dangers of trespassing on railroad tracks and the need to obey the laws at railroad grade crossings,” said Helen Sramek, Operation Lifesaver president. “What better place to alert the public than at the place where an incident could occur?”

Marlins pitcher Dontrelle Willis (aka D-Train) helped unveil the Operation Lifesaver message in English and Spanish which included the Marlins image on the rail cars. “This is a terrific outreach to our fans and other members of the South Florida community – everyone needs to know about driving safely across rail tracks and not playing or walking near them,” Willis said. The Florida Marlins announced that the team will hold an Operation Lifesaver Day and run safety messages on the scoreboard toward the end of home games this season.

The “rolling billboard” rail cars include, in addition to the Operation Lifesaver messages, advertisements for the Florida Marlins with high-impact images of Willis and shortstop Hanley Ramirez measuring approximately 13 feet long by 7 feet high. The cars will run exclusively on the Florida East Coast Railway between Miami and Jacksonville in dedicated unit train service for a two-month test period.

Freight Train Media LLC, which developed the idea with Operation Lifesaver, said that the Marlins are a terrific pilot partner. The use of freight trains will provide advertising sponsors a unique and dramatic outdoor media exposure opportunity, in tandem with the Operation Lifesaver message. Freight rail service on the Florida East Coast Railway could deliver more than three minutes of outdoor media exposure at one rail crossing with high repetition of the Operation Lifesaver and sponsor messages. In addition, a portion of revenue received from advertisers will be allocated to support Operation Lifesaver’s public education programs in Florida.

“In my 40 plus years in the ad business, I have not seen anything this unique and powerful to catch the attention of a large audience,” said Freight Train Media co-founder Patrick J. Morin.

The pilot freight rail cars launched by the Florida Marlins and Operation Lifesaver are the first of their kind in the nation.

Operation Lifesaver’s mission is to end collisions, deaths and injuries at highway-rail grade crossings and on rail property. For more information about the organization, log on to www.oli.org.

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