Field observation of advance warning/advisory signage for passive railway crossings with restricted lateral sightline visibility: an experimental investigation

A new insight on the risky behavior of motorists at railway level crossings: An observational field study

Accidents at railway level crossings (LXs) give rise to serious material and human damage. Particularly, collisions between trains and motorized vehicles are the most critical accidents occurring at LXs. It is worth noticing that violations committed by vehicle drivers are the primary cause of such accidents. The present study is a tentative to acquire a better understanding of risky behavior of vehicle drivers while crossing LXs during the closure cycle. Namely, risk analysis based on field measurement conducted at four automated LXs with two half barriers is performed. We focus on vehicle driver behavior during the LX closure cycle while distinguishing between different phases. In fact, the closure cycle is divided into three phases which are "Ph2 Red Flash and Siren", "Ph3 Barriers Coming Down" and "Ph4 Barriers Down"; and vehicle driver behavior in each phase as time increases is scrutinized respectively. Particularly, zigzag scenarios are detected, using an original experimental setting that we have implemented, and analyzed in detail. The main findings based on the analysis demonstrate that the peak of violation rate in the morning is later than the actual rush hour in the morning; a distinct peak of the violation rate shows on Friday, while the violation rate on weekend is fairly low; the relative violation rate of vehicles with high speed decreases continuously as time advances from Ph2 to Ph3 in the daytime; the violation rate during Ph4 decreases as Ph4 duration is prolonged, which contradicts a general speculation that a higher rate of zigzag violations would appear as the duration of Ph4 is extended. These findings open the way towards determining the impacting factors which have an important contribution to the vehicle driver decision-making in this context (e.g., traffic density, time schedule and phase duration). In addition, the outputs of the present study are conducive to identifying potential interventions to improve safety at LXs.

Using the decision ladder to understand road user decision making at actively controlled rail level crossings

Rail level crossings (RLXs) represent a key strategic risk for railways worldwide. Despite enforcement and engineering countermeasures, user behaviour at RLXs can often confound expectations and erode safety. Research in this area is limited by a relative absence of insights into actual decision making processes and a focus on only a subset of road user types. One-hundred and sixty-six road users (drivers, motorcyclists, cyclists and pedestrians) completed a diary entry for each of 457 naturalistic encounters with RLXs when a train was approaching. The final eligible sample comprised 94 participants and 248 encounters at actively controlled crossings where a violation of the active warnings was possible. The diary incorporated Critical Decision Method probe questions, which enabled user responses to be mapped onto Rasmussen's decision ladder. Twelve percent of crossing events were non-compliant. The underlying decision making was compared to compliant events and a reference decision model to reveal important differences in the structure and type of decision making within and between road user groups. The findings show that engineering countermeasures intended to improve decision making (e.g. flashing lights), may have the opposite effect for some users because the system permits a high level of flexibility for circumvention. Non-motorised users were more likely to access information outside of the warning signals because of their ability to achieve greater proximity to the train tracks and the train itself. The major conundrum in resolving these issues is whether to restrict the amount of time and information available to users so that it cannot be used for circumventing the system or provide more information to help users make safe decisions.

A mathematical modeling approach to resource allocation for railroad-highway crossing safety upgrades

State Departments of Transportation (S-DOT's) periodically allocate budget for safety upgrades at railroad-highway crossings. Efficient resource allocation is crucial for reducing accidents at railroad-highway crossings and increasing railroad as well as highway transportation safety. While a specific method is not restricted to S-DOT's, sorting type of procedures are recommended by the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA), United States Department of Transportation for the resource allocation problem. In this study, a generic mathematical model is proposed for the resource allocation problem for railroad-highway crossing safety upgrades. The proposed approach is compared to sorting based methods for safety upgrades of public at-grade railroad-highway crossings in Tennessee. The comparison shows that the proposed mathematical modeling approach is more efficient than sorting methods in reducing accidents and severity.

Effectiveness of traffic light vs. boom barrier controls at road-rail level crossings: a simulator study

Although collisions at level crossings are relatively uncommon occurrences, the potential severity of their consequences make them a top priority among safety authorities. Twenty-five fully-licensed drivers aged between 20 and 50 years participated in a driving simulator study that compared the efficacy, and drivers' subjective perception, of two active level crossing traffic control devices: flashing lights with boom barriers and standard traffic lights. Because of its common usage in most states in Australia, a stop sign-controlled level crossing served as the passive referent. Although crossing violations were less likely at the level crossings controlled by active devices than at those controlled by stop signs, both kinds of active control were associated with a similar number of violations. Further, the majority (72%) of drivers reported preferring flashing lights to traffic lights. Collectively, results indicate that the installation of traffic lights at real-world level crossings would not be likely to offer safety benefits over and above those provided already by flashing lights with boom barriers. Furthermore, the high rate of violations at passively controlled crossings strongly supports the continued practice of upgrading level crossings with active traffic control devices.

Driver behaviour at rail level crossings: responses to flashing lights, traffic signals and stop signs in simulated rural driving

Australian road and railway authorities have made a concerted effort to reduce the number of rail level crossings, particularly the higher risk passive crossings that are protected by devices such as 'give way' or 'stop' signs. To improve this situation, passive level crossings are often upgraded with active controls such as flashing red lights. Traffic signals may provide good safety outcomes at level crossings but remain untested. The primary purpose of this research was to compare driver behaviour at two railway level crossings with active controls, flashing red lights and traffic signals, to behaviour at the current standard passive level crossing control, a stop sign. Participants drove the MUARC advanced driving simulator for 30 min. During the simulated drive, participants were exposed to three level crossing scenarios. Each scenario consisted of one of three level crossing control types, and was associated with an oncoming train. Mean vehicle speed on approach to the level crossings decreased more rapidly in response to flashing lights than to traffic signals. While speed on approach was lowest for the stop-sign condition, the number of non-compliant drivers (i.e., those who did not stop) at the crossing was highest for this condition. While results indicate that traffic signals at rail level crossings do not appear to offer any safety benefits over and above flashing red lights, further avenues of research are proposed to reach more definitive conclusions. Compliance was lowest for the passive crossing control which provides further support for the ongoing passive crossing upgrades in Australia.

Passenger car collision fatalities--with special emphasis on collisions with heavy vehicles

Between 1995 and 2004, 293 passenger car occupants died in collisions with other vehicles in northern Sweden (annual incidence: 3.3 per 100,000 inhabitants, 6.9 per 100,000 cars, or 4.8 per 10(9)km driven); half of these deaths involved heavy vehicles. The annual number of passenger car occupant deaths per 100,000 cars in car-truck/bus collisions has remained unchanged since the 1980s, but in car-car collisions it has decreased to one third of its former level. As crash objects, trucks and buses killed five times as many car occupants per truck/bus kilometer driven as did cars. The collisions were characterized by crashes in the oncoming vehicle's lane, under icy, snowy, or wet conditions; crashes into heavy vehicles generally occurred in daylight, on workdays, in winter, and on 90 and 70 km/h two-lane roads. Head and chest injuries accounted for most of the fatal injuries. Multiple fatal injuries and critical and deadly head injuries characterized the deaths in collisions with heavy vehicles. An indication of suicide was present in 4% of the deaths; for those who crashed into trucks, this percentage was doubled. Among the driver victims, 4% had blood alcohol levels above the legal limit of 0.2g/L. Frontal collision risks might be reduced by a mid-barrier, by building less injurious fronts on trucks and buses, by efficient skid prevention, and by use of flexible speed limits varying with road and light conditions.

Alcohol as a risk factor for unintentional rail injury fatalities during daylight hours

Railway fatalities account for approximately 10% of transport fatalities in Cape Town. The objective of this study was to examine alcohol intoxication as a risk factor during daylight hours by conducting a case - control study to compare rail passenger and pedestrian fatalities (cases) with motor vehicle passenger and pedestrian fatalities (controls). Rail passenger and rail pedestrian fatalities were defined as cases with motor vehicle passenger and pedestrian fatalities as the respective controls. Data were collected from post-mortem reports at two mortuaries from 1994 to 1996. Blood alcohol concentration was the dependent variable. The independent variables were age, gender, date of death, day of week, time of injury and external cause of death. The late afternoon and early evening period from 1600 hours to 1900 hours had the highest frequency of fatalities for all case and control groups. Of the 56 predominately male (89%) railway passenger cases with an average age of 34.5 (SD 12.5) years, Friday (27%) was the most frequent day of death. Railway pedestrian cases (89% male, average age 36.8 years (SD 13.3)) were more likely to be killed on a Monday (11% of cases). Among the controls, motor vehicle passengers (63% male, average age 39.9 (SD 15.5)) were more likely to die on a Sunday (25%) and pedestrians (82% male, average age 41 (SD 14.7)) on a Saturday (21%). The study showed that alcohol consumption is an important risk factor for rail fatalities during daylight hours, with rail passenger fatalities being 4.71 (1.72 - 12.88) and rail pedestrian fatalities 1.62 (0.98 - 2.69) times more likely to be intoxicated than the respective controls. The results provide more evidence for public health campaigners to tackle endemic alcohol abuse and to develop diverse interventions that do not exclusively target motor vehicle drivers.

Trespassing on the tracks: a review of railway pedestrian safety research

INTRODUCTION

Train-pedestrian collisions have been shown to be the leading cause of fatality in train-related accidents worldwide, yet there is remarkably little research in this area.

METHOD

In this paper, the major types of railway transportation accident research are briefly highlighted to indicate the general context of research concerning train-pedestrian collisions, which are then reviewed. Themes emerging from the diverse research are identified, the various strategies that have been proposed for prevention of railway pedestrian accidents are discussed, and the empirical evidence for their efficacy examined in the light of the much more extensive literature on road pedestrian accidents. Finally, it is proposed that application of current theory in behavioral and cognitive psychology may usefully inform future research in transportation safety.

An evaluation of a suburban railway pedestrian crossing safety programme

This study evaluated a programme of educational and environmental (access prevention) interventions designed to reduce the incidence of illegal and unsafe crossing of the rail corridor at a suburban station in Auckland, New Zealand. Immediately after the programme of interventions, the proportion of those crossing the rail corridor by walking across the tracks directly rather than using the nearby overbridge had decreased substantially. Three months later, the decrease was even greater. However, the educational and environmental interventions were introduced simultaneously so that the effects of each could not be separated; nor could other unmeasured factors be ruled out. Anonymous surveys administered immediately before and 3 months after the interventions indicated that while awareness of the illegality of walking across the tracks had increased slightly, perception of risk had not changed. This suggests that the educational interventions may have had less effect than the access prevention measures.

Fatal railway injuries in Cape Town, South Africa

To describe the features of railway-related deaths in Cape Town, South Africa, we reviewed demographic, autopsy, and accident report data on all such deaths between 1 April 1992 and 30 September 1994. Of the 379 railway-related deaths, 27 were among pedestrians or commuters who were hit by a train while crossing the track, 38 were among commuters who fell from moving trains, 32 were suicides, 43 were the result of criminal violence on trains or at railway stations, and 38 were due to other causes. Most railway fatalities were among men between the ages of 25 and 44 years. About half of all railway fatalities occurred at peak commuting times, with high levels of violence (often robbery related) recorded during the evening peak. A blood alcohol concentration > 0.1 g/100 ml was found in 35% of the people who died from crossing the track or falling from moving trains. Fatal railway injury is characterized by extensive disruption of more than one body region. The high levels of fatal railway injury make a strong case for a range of injury control interventions, including ticket control, surveillance, law enforcement, and safety engineering.

Meeting the challenge of railway injury in a South African city

BACKGROUND

Efficient and safe transport infrastructure is vital for economic growth in developing countries. The city of Cape Town, South Africa, has an extensive rail network with high levels of injury and violence. We investigated the reporting and frequency of railway injuries and examined their reduction through a range of interventions.

METHODS

We analysed railway injury and death reporting by Cape Town's rail utility, state mortuaries, and a regional trauma survey. The data were obtained over 2.5 years, and the use of more than one data source was necessary to increase the size of the data pool and to determine under-reporting.

FINDINGS

There were 379 railway-related deaths and 505 serious injuries during the study period. Most death (190) were train-pedestrian collisions, and the fatality rate on the metropolitan lines was about 60 per 100 million passenger journeys. There was substantial under-reporting by the rail utility of both fatal (20% under-reported) and non-fatal injuries (at least 24%). Many injuries occurred during peak commuting times and alcohol played an important part, especially in pedestrian fatalities.

INTERPRETATION

Our results demonstrate the importance of a comprehensive, sustainable railway injury surveillance system to promote safety engineering and law enforcement in a metropolitan rail system.