SAFETY AT LEVEL (RAIL/ROAD) CROSSINGS

Marjan Sternad marjan.sternad@uni-mb.si Bojan Rosi, PhD Assistant professor bojan.rosi@uni-mb.si Toma Kramberger, M.Sc. tomaz.kramberger@uni-mb.si Maja Foner, PhD Assistant professor maja.fosner@uni-mb.si

Faculty of Logistics Celje - Krko, Slovenia

Abstract
Traffic safety is a very important quality factor in transport services. The European traffic policy aims to reduce the number of casualties in road traffic accidents as well as the number of accidents 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 spots and 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 crossings are secured only by traffic signs. Level crossings are either manned or unmanned. Manned level crossings are quipped with technical facilities that prevent road users from trespassing the rail tracks or they announce the arrival of a train and/or they prohibit the road users from crossing the rail tracks (road signal or (half) barriers) when the train approaches the level crossing or drives through it. Unmanned level crossings are only equipped with St. Andrews cross. Unmanned crossings are often the main cause of accidents with dire consequences. With the increasing number of secured level crossings with automatic signals and barriers, the number of accidents in railway/road traffic is lowered. Based on a regressive model, this paper aims to present a correlation between investments in technical infrastructure at level crossings and the effect of reducing the number of accidents at those crossings.

1 Introduction Road transport safety has improved in the past few years. Such improvement is the result of the construction of the highway network, drivers education and intense supervision of traffic regulations. Level crossings are still identified as accident black spots due to the large number of car accidents with dire consequences. The causes of these accidents are both careless drivers and flouting of traffic regulations. Road Transport Safety Act regulates that before crossing the road drivers and other road users must make sure that the level crossing is safe, especially if the only protection provided are the traffic signs. In order to make this possible the railroad has to be more visible, i.e. from the road over the rail and vice versa - hence contributing to a better safety at level crossings. This paper aims to present a correlation between investments in technical infrastructure at level crossings and the effect of reducing the number of deaths at those crossings. The correlation will be presented by determination and correlation coefficient between number of unmanned level crossings and number of deaths at level crossings. If the correlation is strong, we can conclude that investments in technical infrastructure at level crossings can reduce the number of deaths at level crossings.

incidents at level crossings or to trespassing on rail tracks. Rail transport safety still needs to be improved, by paying special attention to bigger investments in technical traffic safety, infrastructure and vehicle maintenance, vehicle modernisation and harmonisation of the Slovene traffic system with the European traffic system 1. The measures, proposed by the Traffic Policy of the Republic of Slovenia for reducing traffic accidents at level crossings include: - the provision of necessary financial means for consistent implementation of The Safety of Railway Transport Act. - an appropriate professional training and compliance with the regulations, - provision of development along with rail track and vehicle maintenance, - reduction in the number of level crossings and increase in the number of non-level crossings, - implementation of the Second Rail Package of EU-Regulations into the regulation of rail traffic safety. Safety of Railway Transport Act regulates the conditions for a safe, regulated, and unimpeded public rail transportation that is carried out according to the unified technical and technological process. The conditions for safe rail transportation refer to the rail route, level crossings, rail vehicles, traffic rules, railway code system, railway staff, disciplinary measures, incidents in rail transport as well as rail tracks and rail vehicle protection. On average, rail transport is 24 times safer than road transport2. Rail transport safety3 is provided through secure rail routes, through which a train can arrive at and depart from the train station and move between track sections. This prevents another train from entering the same section or rail route. To provide a route, the rail track must be made available; all switch points must be placed in the right position and secured so that the route direction is not altered until the presumed journey has ended. Besides placing and securing the switch points along the route (as well as protection from the side and the front) level crossings need to be secured and all moving vehicles that could pose a threat to the train must be stopped. Passenger trains must enable the passengers to enter and exit the train safely.

2 Safety at level crossing The European traffic policy aims to reduce the number of casualties in road traffic accidents as well as the number of accidents 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 spots and the harmonisation of regulations that deal with penalising traffic offenders. Road Transport Safety Act regulates the behaviour of road users so that they do not hinder or endanger other road users. When drivers are nearing the level crossing, they must drive very carefully and at such speed, that they can safely stop the vehicle before level crossing. At the level crossing the train and other railway vehicles have the right of way. Other road users must be warned with traffic signs when nearing manned or unmanned level crossings. Safety at level crossings is correlated with rail transport safety. Rail transport safety depends on the safety of the entire railway network, traffic users and traffic policy. The latter influences the formation of safety laws and regulations with its actions and measures. In the past few years rail transport safety has improved. However, this does not refer to

Resolution on the traffic policy of the Republic of Slovenia 2 National development programme of Slovene railway infrastructure. 3 http://www.slozeleznice.si/sl/infrastruktura/vodenje_prometa/

The rail transportation enables (due to rail and iron wheels) an extensive transit at a relatively high speed with small energy consumption. While this is regarded as a great advantage the problem occurs in the event of stopping the train. Due to the low coefficient of friction between wheels and rail, braking distances are extremely long (1000, 700 or 400 meters or even 1500 or 1300 meters) and are determined for each track regarding the most uneven section and extreme conditions. On account of long braking distance the railway has the right-ofway on road/rail intersection points (street level crossings). In order to ensure the safety of road users, level crossings have to be protected. This is done by either: automatically secured, 31 are provided with an automatic road signalisation (warning lights),

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 halfgates or automatic traffic light signals.

In Slovenia there are 1228 kilometres of rail tracks and 1653 railway crossings at one or two levels. There are 653 crossings at two levels with 44 subways, 3 overpasses, 452 underpasses and 154 road-bridges. There are 965 rail/road crossings at the same level, of which 244 are 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 61 64 58 12 33 16 244 AK 130 37 157 21 261 32 638 MZ 4 0 13 5 13 8 43 ACS 6 5 3 4 13 0 31 ZB 0 0 6 1 2 0 9 TOTAL: 201 106 237 43 322 56 965

SVP CELJE SVP LJUBLJANA SVP MARIBOR SVP NOVA GORICA SVP NOVO MESTO SVP POSTOJNA TOTAL:

Glossary: Section for railroad maintenance SVP Automatically secured level crossing ANPr ACS AK MZ Automatic road signalisation warning lights St. Andrew's cross Mechanical gates tracks (road signal or (half) barriers) when the train approaches the level crossing or drives through it. Unmanned level crossings are only equipped with St. Andrews cross4.

The Safety of Railway Transport Act regards a non-level crossing: - the crossing of rail and motorway, semi-motorway or an A class road, - when traffic is heavy (over 7000 vehicles per day of the average yearly traffic volume), - when rail traffic is heavy (over 70 trains per day of the average yearly traffic volume), - when the highest permissible train speed exceeds 160kph. Level crossings are either manned or unmanned. Manned level crossings are quipped with technical facilities that prevent road users from trespassing the rail tracks or they announce the arrival of a train and/or they prohibit the road users from crossing the rail

Rules on railway level crossings

Figure 2: Number of deaths at level crossings (1988-2003) Unmanned level crossings 130 37 157 21 261 32 638 Death toll: 31 34 44 2 28 9 148

SVP CELJE SVP LJUBLJANA SVP MARIBOR SVP NOVA GORICA SVP NOVO MESTO SVP POSTOJNA TOTAL:

3 Correlation between unmanned level crossings and number of death at level crossings The simplest curve in correlation analysis is a line. When a line for finding a correlation between two data is used, we talk about linear correlation. If we choose two points from a wide graph, we can write an equation for a line. For two points x1 , y1 and x 2 , y 2 we can

y y1 m= 2 x x 1 2
a0 and a1 for equation of line

(2)

y = a1 x + a0

(3)

operate with the following equations

y y1 = m (x x1 )

(1)

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

50 45 40 35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350

Number of unmanned level crossings

Number of deaths

With equations (1) and (2) and data from figure 2, parameters a0 and a1 for linear correlation have been calculated. We get a line:

is 0.544. This values shows, that we have medium correlation. Because of that, we believe that investments in technical infrastructure at level crossings can reduce the number of deaths at level crossings, however, there are also other factors that influence the safety at level crossings. 4 Conclusion

y= 0.091723x + 14.91343 For the strength and direction of the correlation the determination coefficient r2 and correlation coefficient r must 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. The European transport policy aims to reduce the number of deaths in car accidents. Some of the measures for reducing the deaths on roads are: penalising traffic offenders and the introduction of safer technology. An important part of transport policy present the accident black spots, and level crossings are one of these dangerous spots. Safety at level crossings is ensured by technical infrastructure as well as drivers awareness. The strength of correlation between technical investments and the number of deaths is medium. Medium correlation tells us that technical investments at level crossings can reduce the number of deaths, but the main cause of accidents with dire consequences lies in the careless behaviour of road users. Bearing in mind, that in the future, road users are unlikely to follow traffic regulations and safety measures, which have been implemented in order to ensure the safety at level crossings and due to the fact, that in the future speed limits will be raised, the construction of overpasses or underpasses or the setting-up of automatic level-crossing barriers will also become necessary, in order to ensure the safety for the rail/road traffic at level crossings. The second alternative would be the elimination of level crossings altogether.

explained variance r= = total variance

(Y Y ) (Y Y )
oc

(4) The value of correlation coefficient r is between -1 and +1, while the determination coefficient value is between 0 and 1. The minus 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 of correlation coefficient is between 0 and 0.50, and the value of determination coefficient is between 0 and 0.25. medium correlation, when the value of correlation coefficient is between 0.50 and 0.80, and the value of determination coefficient is between 0.25 and 0.65. strong correlation, when the value of correlation coefficient is between 0.80, and 1 and the value of determination coefficient is between 0.65 and 1.

References: National development programme of Slovene railway infrastructure. Resolution on the traffic policy of the Republic of Slovenia Road Transport Safety Act Rules on railway level crossings Safety of Railway Transport Act WHITE PAPER "European transport policy for 2010 : time to decide"

The determination coefficient r2 between unmanned level crossings and the number of deaths is 0.295 and the correlation coefficient r