Citation

No Author(s) Listed. Proc. Inst. Mech. Eng. Pt. F J. Rail Rapid Transit 2007; 221(3): 321-329.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2007, Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Publisher SAGE Publishing)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

This paper presents a model to predict the probability of accidents, injuries, and fatalities resulting from collisions between trains and vehicles at highway rail crossings. Models are built using logistic regression and two databases maintained by the US Federal Railroad Administration (FRA). It is noted, too, that the new models show a greater degree of accuracy than the currently used FRA model in terms of to computing the cost effectiveness of crossing upgrades. The research also presents a declining trend involving the likelihood of an accident, a finding that cannot be explained by changes over time to crossings or highways. The authors note possible causes of this trend, testing one of them for further discussion. Both the cost per life saved from upgrading each crossing without gates is computed by the model, along with trends in the number of crossings over time that are cost effective to upgrade.