CRASHES AT RAILWAY LEVEL CROSSINGS

THE 486 ACCIDENTS REPORTED OCCURRING AT RAILWAY LEVEL CROSSINGS IN NEW SOUTH WALES FROM 1966 TO 1969 WERE STUDIED. LESS THAN HALF WERE COLLISIONS BETWEEN A MOTOR VEHICLE AND A RAIL VEHICLE; THE REMAINDER WERE MOSTLY COLLISIONS WITH FIXED OBJECTS SUCH AS CROSSING GATES, FENCES, SIGNPOSTS, ETC. THE DISTRIBUTION OF REPORTED MOTOR VEHICLE SPEEDS IN THE LATTER GROUP APPROXIMATED THE NORMAL DISTRIBUTION, HOWEVER, THE REPORTED SPEEDS OF MOTOR VEHICLES THAT COLLIDED WITH RAIL VEHICLES FOLLOWED THE NEGATIVE EXPONENTIAL DISTRIBUTION. THIS IMPLIES THAT EXPOSURE TIME AT THE CROSSING HAS AN INFLUENCE ON THE INCIDENCE OF ACCIDENTS, AND CONSEQUENTLY, THERE IS A POSSIBILITY THAT A LEGAL REQUIREMENT THAT A VEHICLE STOP AT A CROSSING IT IS OTHERWISE FREE TO CROSS MAY INCREASE RATHER THAN DECREASE ITS RISK OF COLLISION BY PROLONGING THE TIME IT WILL SPEND IN THE CONFLICT AREA. AT SOME CROSSINGS SIGHT DISTANCES, THE APPROACH SPEEDS OF TRAINS, AND THE PERFORMANCE LIMITS OF MOTOR VEHICLE WILL SO COMBINE THAT AUTOMATIC TRAIN-ACTUATED WARNING DEVICES ARE THE ONLY RELIABLE PROTECTION AGAINST COLLISION. SURVEYS OF MOTOR VEHICLE SPEEDS AT CROSSINGS SHOWED THAT A CROSSING OPEN TO MOTOR VEHICLES HAS LITTLE INFLUENCE ON THE SPEED OF THEM, AND THAT THE DRIVERS TRAVERSED THE CROSSINGS AT SPEEDS WHICH WERE NOT SIGNIFICANTLY DIFFERENT FROM THEIR SPEEDS ON ADJACENT ROAD SECTIONS WITH SIMILAR GEOMETRY AND OTHER CHARACTERISTICS. THE DISTRIBUTION OF VEHICLE SPEEDS TRAVERSING CROSSINGS APPROXIMATED THE NORMAL DISTRIBUTION. THE SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION OF BOTH GROUPS OF ACCIDENTS (MOTOR VEHICLE/RAIL VEHICLE COLLISIONS AND MOTOR VEHICLE/FIXED OBJECT COLLISIONS) OVER THE 2,790 LEVEL CROSSINGS IN NEW SOUTH WALES FOLLOWED A POISSON (RANDOM) DISTRIBUTION. /HSRI/

• Supplemental Notes:
  • Rept No 1/72
• Corporate Authors:

  New South Wales Dept Motor Transport

  /Traffic Accident Res Unit
  ,   United States 
• Authors:
  • Messiter, G F
• Publication Date: 1972-3

Media Info

• Features: Photos; Tables;
• Pagination: 35 p.

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Crash causes; Crashes; Railroad grade crossings; Speed
• Subject Areas: Highways; Operations and Traffic Management; Railroads; Safety and Human Factors;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00226514
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: Highway Safety Research Institute
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Apr 17 1973 12:00AM