Safety at Level Crossings

7/29/2019 Safety at Level Crossings

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SAFETY AT LEVEL (RAIL/ROAD) CROSSINGS

Marjan [email protected]

Bojan Rosi,PhD Assistant professor

[email protected]

Maja Foner,PhD Assistant [email protected]

Toma Kramberger, M.Sc.

[email protected]

Faculty of Logistics Celje - Krko, Slovenia

Abstract

Traffic safety is a very important quality factor in transport services. The European traffic policyaims to reduce the number of casualties in road traffic accidents as well as the number ofaccidents at level crossings, where two traffic systems intersect. The measures, suggested by the

European traffic policy include the harmonisation of road signs at especially dangerous black spotsand the harmonisation of regulations that deal with penalising traffic offenders. In railway traffic,secured level crossings are of utmost importance for safety. In Slovenia 70% of all level crossingsare secured only by traffic signs. Level crossings are either manned or unmanned. Manned levelcrossings are quipped with technical facilities that prevent road users from trespassing the railtracks or they announce the arrival of a train and/or they prohibit the road users from crossing therail tracks (road signal or (half) barriers) when the train approaches the level crossing or drivesthrough it. Unmanned level crossings are only equipped with St. Andrews cross. Unmannedcrossings are often the main cause of accidents with dire consequences. With the increasingnumber of secured level crossings with automatic signals and barriers, the number of accidents inrailway/road traffic is lowered. Based on a regressive model, this paper aims to present acorrelation between investments in technical infrastructure at level crossings and the effect ofreducing the number of accidents at those crossings.
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1 Introduction

Road transport safety has improved in the past fewyears. Such improvement is the result of theconstruction of the highway network, driverseducation and intense supervision of traffic

regulations. Level crossings are still identified asaccident black spots due to the large number of caraccidents with dire consequences. The causes ofthese accidents are both careless drivers andflouting of traffic regulations. Road Transport SafetyAct regulates that before crossing the road driversand other road users must make sure that the levelcrossing is safe, especially if the only protectionprovided are the traffic signs. In order to make thispossible the railroad has to be more visible, i.e. fromthe road over the rail and vice versa - hencecontributing to a better safety at level crossings.

This paper aims to present a correlation betweeninvestments in technical infrastructure at levelcrossings and the effect of reducing the number ofdeaths at those crossings. The correlation will bepresented by determination and correlationcoefficient between number of unmanned levelcrossings and number of deaths at level crossings. Ifthe correlation is strong, we can conclude thatinvestments in technical infrastructure at levelcrossings can reduce the number of deaths at levelcrossings.

2 Safety at level crossing

The European traffic policy aims to reduce thenumber of casualties in road traffic accidents as wellas the number of accidents at level crossings, wheretwo traffic systems intersect. The measures,suggested by the European traffic policy include theharmonisation of road signs at especially dangerousblack spots and the harmonisation of regulationsthat deal with penalising traffic offenders.

Road Transport Safety Act regulates the behaviourof road users so that they do not hinder or endanger

other road users. When drivers are nearing the levelcrossing, they must drive very carefully and at suchspeed, that they can safely stop the vehicle beforelevel crossing. At the level crossing the train andother railway vehicles have the right of way. Otherroad users must be warned with traffic signs whennearing manned or unmanned level crossings.

Safety at level crossings is correlated with railtransport safety. Rail transport safety depends onthe safety of the entire railway network, traffic usersand traffic policy. The latter influences the formationof safety laws and regulations with its actions and

measures. In the past few years rail transport safetyhas improved. However, this does not refer to

incidents at level crossings or to trespassing on railtracks. Rail transport safety still needs to beimproved, by paying special attention to biggerinvestments in technical traffic safety, infrastructureand vehicle maintenance, vehicle modernisation andharmonisation of the Slovene traffic system with the

European traffic system1

.

The measures, proposed by the Traffic Policy of theRepublic of Slovenia for reducing traffic accidents atlevel crossings include:

- the provision of necessary financial meansfor consistent implementation of The Safetyof Railway Transport Act.

- an appropriate professional training andcompliance with the regulations,

- provision of development along with railtrack and vehicle maintenance,

- reduction in the number of level crossings

and increase in the number of non-levelcrossings,

- implementation of the Second Rail Packageof EU-Regulations into the regulation of railtraffic safety.

Safety of Railway Transport Act regulates theconditions for a safe, regulated, and unimpededpublic rail transportation that is carried out accordingto the unified technical and technological process.The conditions for safe rail transportation refer to therail route, level crossings, rail vehicles, traffic rules,railway code system, railway staff, disciplinary

measures, incidents in rail transport as well as railtracks and rail vehicle protection. On average, railtransport is 24 times safer than road transport

2.

Rail transport safety3

is provided through secure railroutes, through which a train can arrive at anddepart from the train station and move betweentrack sections. This prevents another train fromentering the same section or rail route. To provide aroute, the rail track must be made available; allswitch points must be placed in the right positionand secured so that the route direction is not altereduntil the presumed journey has ended. Besides

placing and securing the switch points along theroute (as well as protection from the side and thefront) level crossings need to be secured and allmoving vehicles that could pose a threat to the trainmust be stopped. Passenger trains must enable thepassengers to enter and exit the train safely.

1Resolution on the traffic policy of the Republic of

Slovenia2

National development programme of Slovene

railway infrastructure.3http://www.slo-

zeleznice.si/sl/infrastruktura/vodenje_prometa/


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The rail transportation enables (due to rail and ironwheels) an extensive transit at a relatively highspeed with small energy consumption. While this isregarded as a great advantage the problem occursin the event of stopping the train. Due to the lowcoefficient of friction between wheels and rail,

braking distances are extremely long (1000, 700 or400 meters or even 1500 or 1300 meters) and aredetermined for each track regarding the mostuneven section and extreme conditions. On accountof long braking distance the railway has the right-of-way on road/rail intersection points (street levelcrossings). In order to ensure the safety of roadusers, level crossings have to be protected. This isdone by either:

- street signs such as the St. Andrew's cross,the STOP sign, an additional traffic mirror,concrete columns, barriers;

- mechanical gates (manual or automatic) or- automatic installations: automatic gates or

half-gates, semi-automatic gates or half-gates or automatic traffic light signals.

In Slovenia there are 1228 kilometres of rail tracksand 1653 railway crossings at one or two levels.There are 653 crossings at two levels with 44subways, 3 overpasses, 452 underpasses and 154road-bridges. There are 965 rail/road crossings atthe same level, of which 244 are

automatically secured, 31 are provided with anautomatic road signalisation (warning lights),

43 have mechanical gates, 638 have St.Andrew's cross and 9 have barriers.

Figure 1: Number of crossings and the way of securing them according to different sections

ANPr AK MZ ACS ZB TOTAL:

SVP CELJE 61 130 4 6 0 201

SVP LJUBLJANA 64 37 0 5 0 106

SVP MARIBOR 58 157 13 3 6 237

SVP NOVA GORICA 12 21 5 4 1 43

SVP NOVO MESTO 33 261 13 13 2 322

SVP POSTOJNA 16 32 8 0 0 56

TOTAL: 244 638 43 31 9 965

Glossary:

SVP Section for railroad maintenance

ANPr Automatically secured level crossing

ACSAutomatic road signalisation warning lights

AK St. Andrew's cross

MZ Mechanical gates

The Safety of Railway Transport Act regards anon-level crossing:

- the crossing of rail and motorway,semi-motorway or an A class road,

- when traffic is heavy (over 7000vehicles per day of the average yearlytraffic volume),

- when rail traffic is heavy (over 70trains per day of the average yearlytraffic volume),

- when the highest permissible trainspeed exceeds 160kph.

Level crossings are either manned orunmanned. Manned level crossings arequipped with technical facilities that preventroad users from trespassing the rail tracks orthey announce the arrival of a train and/or theyprohibit the road users from crossing the rail

tracks (road signal or (half) barriers) whenthe train approaches the level crossing ordrives through it. Unmanned level crossingsare only equipped with St. Andrews cross

4.

4Rules on railway level crossings


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Figure 2: Number of deaths at level crossings (1988-2003)

Unmanned levelcrossings

Death toll:

SVP CELJE 130 31

SVP LJUBLJANA37

34SVP MARIBOR

157 44

SVP NOVA GORICA21 2

SVP NOVO MESTO261 28

SVP POSTOJNA32 9

TOTAL:638 148

3 Correlation between unmanned level

crossings and number of death at levelcrossings

The simplest curve in correlation analysis is aline. When a line for finding a correlationbetween two data is used, we talk about linearcorrelation. If we choose two points from awide graph, we can write an equation for aline.

For two points ( and ( we canoperate with the following equations

) )11 yx , 22 yx ,

( )11 xxmyy = (1)

= 12

12

xx

yy

m

(2)

a0and a1 for equation of line

1 0y a x a= + (3)

Figure 3: The correlation between the number of unmanned level crossings and the number of deathsat level crossings

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350

Number of unmanned level crossings

Numberofdeaths


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With equations (1) and (2) and data from figure

2, parameters a0 and a1 for linear correlation

have been calculated. We get a line:

y= 0.091723x + 14.91343

For the strength and direction of the correlation

the determination coefficient r2

and correlation

coefficient rmust be calculated.

The determination coefficient is a coefficient

between an explained and total variance,

which is denoted by r2.

After the square root

transformation we get the correlation

coefficient r.

( )

( )

2

2

explained variance

total variance

ocY Y

rY Y

= =

(4)

The value of correlation coefficient r is

between -1 and +1, while the determination

coefficient value is between 0 and 1. Theminus or plus sign is showing the direction

while the value is showing the strength of the

correlation.

We talk about:

weak correlation, when the value ofcorrelation coefficient is between 0and 0.50, and the value ofdetermination coefficient is between 0and 0.25.

medium correlation, when the value ofcorrelation coefficient is between 0.50and 0.80, and the value ofdetermination coefficient is between0.25 and 0.65.

strong correlation, when the value ofcorrelation coefficient is between 0.80,and 1 and the value of determinationcoefficient is between 0.65 and 1.

The determination coefficient r2

betweenunmanned level crossings and the number ofdeaths is 0.295 and the correlation coefficient r

is 0.544. This values shows, that we havemedium correlation. Because of that, webelieve that investments in technicalinfrastructure at level crossings can reduce thenumber of deaths at level crossings, however,there are also other factors that influence the

safety at level crossings.

4 Conclusion

The European transport policy aims to reducethe number of deaths in car accidents. Someof the measures for reducing the deaths onroads are: penalising traffic offenders and theintroduction of safer technology. An importantpart of transport policy present the accidentblack spots, and level crossings are one ofthese dangerous spots. Safety at levelcrossings is ensured by technical infrastructure

as well as drivers awareness.

The strength of correlation between technicalinvestments and the number of deaths ismedium. Medium correlation tells us thattechnical investments at level crossings canreduce the number of deaths, but the maincause of accidents with dire consequences liesin the careless behaviour of road users.

Bearing in mind, that in the future, road usersare unlikely to follow traffic regulations andsafety measures, which have been

implemented in order to ensure the safety atlevel crossings and due to the fact, that in thefuture speed limits will be raised, theconstruction of overpasses or underpasses orthe setting-up of automatic level-crossingbarriers will also become necessary, in orderto ensure the safety for the rail/road traffic atlevel crossings. The second alternative wouldbe the elimination of level crossings altogether.

References:

National development programme of Slovenerailway infrastructure.Resolution on the traffic policy of the Republicof SloveniaRoad Transport Safety ActRules on railway level crossingsSafety of Railway Transport ActWHITE PAPER "European transport policy for2010 : time to decide"

Documents

Safety at Level Crossings