At-grade road-rail crossings are considered to be a significant safety issue as they present a source of permanent danger of train-vehicle collisions. It is especially acute for countries where the basic railway structure was built fifty or more years ago, and as a result, a large amount of at-grade crossings exist. Focus on the problem has intensified lately owing to railway expansion and constant growth of road traffic. This situation is characteristic for Israel, and also for various East European and other developing countries. Grade separation is recognized as a radical solution, but it calls for large investments, and cannot be applied on the entire railway network. Thus, some ranking must be undertaken to identify those crossings that reasonably require grade-separation. An essential part of this ranking is the evaluation of crossing safety. Generally, small countries do not possess sufficient data to generate statistical models similar to the US DOT accident prediction formula or others. At the same time, it is essential to provide estimates stemming from local conditions. For these, available accident data were artificially enlarged using the unification of accident statistics and information from crossings functioning over a six-year period. A hazard index was created which served as a basic evaluation tool. The multitude of accidents and crossings were split according to the values of several crossing characteristics (category of warning device, volume of vehicle traffic, volume of train traffic, visibility conditions). The model provides for a safety evaluation of 210 crossing variants, both active presently, in the past, or possibly in the future. A number of retrospective examinations revealed that the model on average predicts the number of accidents close to the real data. (A) . (This paper has also been published in Accident Analysis & Prevention, 1997 Vol. 29, No. 2, p. 171-179 (IRRD 888322)).
Abstract