Citation

Wigglesworth EC. J. Saf. Res. 1979; 11(4): 162-171.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1979, U.S. National Safety Council, Publisher Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

A study was conducted of 85 fatal accidents at road-rail crossings in Victoria during the period 1973-1977. These accidents occurred either at crossings protected by a flashing light installations are at open crossings protected only by a static array of signs. Data for the study were drawn from police reports. Accident distribution was found to be atypical compared to the general road from a picture; 80% of accidents occurred between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. Monday to Saturday, and there were no accidents at all on Sundays. Alcohol was present in less than 10% of the cases compared with 25% of road accident cases generally in Victoria. Most drivers were local and were familiar with the characteristics of the crossing. One third of the accidents occurred on gravel roads. Passenger trains, and especially rail motors, were overrepresented on an exposure basis, possibly because of the higher speed of these trains. There were three "second train" accidents in which a driver, having seen one train pass, began to traverse the crossing and was hit by a second train from the opposite direction. In the metropolitan area, 14 of the 20 accidents at crossings protected by flashing lights occurred in locations within H configuration of adjacent road intersections and for more occurred in locations with adjacent T intersection. In only two locations where there no adjacent road intersection. It appeared that, in most cases, the accident occurred to a law-abiding citizen going about his or her daily work and was attributable to human overload unrelated to any breach of regulations. As a consequent of these findings, several recommendations for changes in crossing protection are made.