Railway engineers always point out Level Crossings (LC) as a one of the most critical points in railway networks from the safety point of view. Statistics show that more than 300 people are killed every year in Europe in more than 1200 accidents occurring at LCs. In this article, we carry out a comparative study involving two main types of Automatic Protection Systems (APS), the first using a pair of half-barriers and the second with four half-barriers. Each of these two automatic protection systems has some relative advantages and some drawbacks. In the literature and in railway and road guidance documents, some recommendations are given in order to make choice between these systems. However, these recommendations are mainly based on a qualitative analysis. Here, we suggest some behavioural models that can be used as a basis to assess the collision risk quantitatively on both LC configurations. These Stochastic Petri net (SPN) models describe the global dynamics within the LC area ...

From the safety point of view, level crossings (LC's) are critical points in the safe conduct of rail and road traffic. Due to the different characteristics of rail and road vehicles (size, speed, stopping distance, maneuvering capabilities etc.) level crossings are often places with frequent accidents which and in most cases result in human fatalities and big material damages, even though, all of them are secured with appropriate level of technical protection. Accident statistics have shown that the main cause for all accidents (more than 95%) is human factor of road users (drivers, cyclist and pedestrians) who didn’t follow and obey traffic safety regulation at level crossings. This review paper presents current safety situation at level crossings in the Republic of Croatia and comparison with EU countries. Safety measures for preventing or diminishing level crossing accidents are presented and proposed.

Every year, more than 400 people are killed in over 1,200 accidents at road-rail level crossings in the European Union. Together with tunnels and specific road black spots, level crossings have been identified as being a particular weak point in road infrastructure, seriously jeopardizing road safety. In the case of railway transport, level crossings can represent as much as 29% of all fatalities caused by railway operations. Up to now, the only effective solution appears to involve upgrading level crossing safety systems even though in more than 90% of cases the primary accident cause is inadequate or improper human behavior rather than any technical, rail-based issue. This article provides results of research done on possible technological solutions to reduce the number of accidents at level crossings and demonstrate the effectiveness of the latter. Elements of these recommendations and related research activities constitute the main focus of the research work described in this pa...