Authors:  E.H. Farr, J.S. Hitz

Date of Publication:  July 1984

Sponsoring Agency:  U.S. Department of Transportation - Federal Highway Administration, Office of Research, Development, and Technology; Federal Railroad Administration, Office of Safety

Performing Organization:  USDOT Transportation Systems Center - Cambridge, MA

Report No:  FHWA/RD-83/092

Abstract:

This report describes the development of formulas which predict the severity of accidents at public rail-highway crossings.  They employ the previously developed DOT accident prediction formula, U.S. DOT/AAR National Rail-Highway Crossing Inventory, and the FRA accident files.  With these new formulas used in the DOT Resource Allocation Procedure, information will be available to assist in making better decisions about where to install motorist warning devices to further increase crossing safety for a given level of funding.

Established statistical techniques are used to develop two formulas: one that estimates the number of fatal accidents per year at a crossing and one that estimates the number of injury accidents per year at a crossing.  It was found that the factors in the inventory that significantly influence fatal accident severity given that an accident occurred, were maximum timetable train speed, the number of through trains per day, the number of switch trains per day, and the rural/urban location.  For injury accident severity, given that an accident occurred, the significant factors were maximum timetable train speed, the number of tracks, and the urban/rural location.

The performance of these severity formulas is discussed and calculated results are presented.
 

No. of Pages:  46