The Road Safety Monitor is an annual public opinion survey by the Traffic Injury Research Foundation (TIRF) that takes the pulse of the nation on key road safety issues by means of a comprehensive telephone survey of a random, representative sample of Canadian drivers. The results from the third edition of the Road Safety Monitor are being released in a series of reports that cover several key issues. The present report focuses on highway/railway crossing safety. In 2002, collisions at highway/railway crossings resulted in the deaths of 46 people and serious injuries to 42 others. Canadians do not appear to be overly concerned about highway/railway crossing safety. Indeed, only 17% of survey respondents currently believe highway/railway crossing safety is a serious problem. The relatively low rating of the perceived seriousness of highway/railway crossings as a road safety issue may indicate that Canadian drivers believe safety improvements and initiatives have made crossings less risky. Hopefully it does not indicate that drivers have become complacent about the dangers. Despite the fact that most drivers don’t see highway/railway crossing safety in general as a serious issue, they do voice substantial concern about specific issues related to crossings. For example, 40% of survey respondents are very concerned or extremely concerned about drivers not looking for trains at crossings. And, 27% are very concerned about the safety of highway/railway crossings in their communities. Concern about highway/railway crossing issues is greater in Quebec and the Atlantic provinces than in the rest of Canada. Canadians also say that they see some very dangerous behaviours at highway/railway crossings -- 11% say they often or very often see drivers crossing the tracks when the signal lights are flashing; 6% frequently see drivers going around the barriers at highway/railway crossings. Given the potentially fatal consequences of these behaviours, even relatively infrequent occurrences are disturbing. Risky behaviours by drivers at highway/railway crossings are reported most frequently in Quebec and least often in British Columbia. Survey respondents believe that more needs to be done to improve the safety of highway/railway crossings. Ninety percent of Canadian drivers agree that automatic flashing lights and/or barriers should be installed at all highway/railway crossings that service high speed trains. Just under half (42%) agree that more highway/railway crossings should be replaced with overpasses or underpasses to avoid having trains come into direct conflict with highway vehicles. A somewhat surprising number of survey respondents (48%) even agree that all vehicles should be required to stop at all highway/railway crossings. (Author/publisher)
Samenvatting