Breadcrumb Links:

High Risk Users of Railway Level Crossings

Project Manager:

Prof. Lee Di Milia

Sponsor Organisations:

Partner Research Organisations:

Staff Members:

  • Emma Pettiford - RISSB
  • Terry Spicer - DoT (Vic)
  • Randall Barry - TransAdelaide
  • Prof. Lee Di Milia

Objectives

The aim of this scoping study is to better define the characteristics of who is involved in an accident by the accident site (rural versus urban) and by whether the site is protected or not.

The scoping study essentially aims to conduct a literature review and a search of accident databases (where possible) to better understand the nature of these rail level crossing accidents. In particular, the focus is on pedestrians and vehicle drivers. Information relevant to the role of train drivers in these accidents will not be directly investigated.

The findings of this literature review will provide guidance for follow up studies.

Background

This project will provide a better understanding of the factors associated with railway level crossing accidents and allow improved intervention to improve safety at these sites.

There are some 100 incidents at railway level crossings around Australia annually. These incidents may be categorized as those involving pedestrians, car, truck and bus drivers.

Currently minimal data is available about these incidents and unfortunately, that which is obtainable has two main issues.

The first is that the data is aggregated at a high level and lacks specific information to target an intervention. For example, it may be useful to examine the incidents using the following categories:

  • urban/rural
  • controlled/uncontrolled crossings
  • day/night timing

The second difficulty is there is little information available on the contribution of human factors (age, sex, personality, and fatigue/sleepiness) to a railway level crossing accident. Information is lacking on the characteristics of people using crossings and also the train driver.

These two broad problems (accident categorization and human factors) are not mutually exclusive.