{"id":16095,"date":"2024-06-05T14:03:19","date_gmt":"2024-06-05T13:03:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.systra.com\/uk\/?post_type=expert_insights&p=16095"},"modified":"2025-08-04T12:36:36","modified_gmt":"2025-08-04T11:36:36","slug":"risk-at-level-crossings-the-role-of-personal-and-collective-responsibility-towards-safety","status":"publish","type":"expert_insights","link":"https:\/\/www.systra.com\/uk\/expert_insights\/risk-at-level-crossings-the-role-of-personal-and-collective-responsibility-towards-safety\/","title":{"rendered":"Risk at level crossings – the role of personal and collective responsibility towards safety"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Level crossings are intersections where rail and road traffic meet at the same level. Incidents at level crossings are potentially more likely to result in fatalities compared to road traffic incidents. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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As high-risk intersections, level crossings are equipped with a broad range of safety warnings and measures. Notwithstanding the differences in the design of signage and other safety measures between countries, the exact combination of safety warnings for each level crossing will depend on the relative risk for that specific location.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Where level crossings are on busy roads with heavy vehicle or pedestrian traffic, they usually require some form of active warnings, such as lights and audible warnings. The type of protection does not only depend on the road traffic and layout, for example sighting distance and potential for bottlenecks, but also on rail traffic and infrastructure characteristics such as the number of tracks or frequency of rail services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Passive level crossings are those where it is the road user\u2019s responsibility to make a judgment about when it is safe to cross or rely on instructions from a signaller. For example, the user may have to ring a signaller for permission to cross.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Incidents post-Covid<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Despite various measures aimed at reducing the risk at such intersections, the number of fatalities has remained high in recent years. When factoring in the much higher number of near misses with the potential to result in fatalities or significant infrastructure damage, this explains why safety at level crossings is an important issue – it represents 6% of the total mainline system risk<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The safest level crossing is a closed one, meaning it is no longer a designated place to cross the tracks. Despite a large number of crossings being closed in the last five years, the overall number of incidents has remained similar. This might imply that more incidents are now taking place per level crossing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Near misses with pedestrians at passive and user-worked crossings – the largest proportion of level crossings on the UK network – are a particular issue. The Rail Safety and Standards Board\u2019s (RSSB) database (figure 1 below), shows near-misses with pedestrians have substantially increased in the years following the national lockdowns introduced during the Covid-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Figure 1: number of near misses with pedestrians across the
GB network (taken from RSSB Level Crossing data hub), 17\/05\/2024<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
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The most obvious reason for such an increase is the ubiquitous shift of travel and work patterns. More people are now permanently or mainly working from home. There is a tendency to move away from busy cities to more rural and remote locations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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There is also a greater emphasis on and interest from the general public in mental and physical health and keeping active during work hours. All of these factors may have led to a significant change in the population using level crossings and more so for leisure purposes. This could certainly help explain the higher number of incidents, but there are other factors to be considered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The shift in travel patterns and ever-growing population has introduced the need for multiple infrastructure upgrades and more frequent services across the network. Additionally, the last years have seen multiple service disruptions due to planned and unplanned maintenance works, staff shortages and strikes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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All these factors translate into a more dynamic and unpredictable operation of the railways today compared to a few years ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Behavioural patterns<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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In 2015, I completed my PhD thesis looking at the factors shaping pedestrians\u2019 crossing decisions at level crossings. My findings shed light on psychological constructs such as the perception of control, the perception of safety, individual\u2019s previous experience and social influences, to name a few. It is easy for regular users to stray into unsafe behaviours when they feel familiar with the crossing context – the direction and speed of timetabled trains, when they know a train is expected to stop at station before reaching the level crossing. However, there can always be a change in train timetables, there can always be a delayed fast train coming through instead of a stopping one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Indeed, familiarity with a crossing is recognised as a major factor influencing decision-making. The Office of Rail and Road (ORR), in the most recent guidance<\/a> for the management of risk at level crossings, emphasises the importance of including \u2018human factors\u2019 in design and risk assessments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The guidance points to the need to understand people\u2019s tendency to underestimate risk, especially when required to make quick decisions in familiar environments. It also stresses the need to communicate crossing instructions clearly and aim for seamless designs to reduce the potential for unintentional errors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Understanding when people may be attracted to taking shortcuts or deviating from the rules and procedures around level crossings is one of the cornerstones of our profession as Human Factors specialists at SYSTRA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Human Factors integration – Why we should strive to understand risks early on<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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When we talk about \u2018Human Factors Integration\u2019, we want to make sure that human capabilities and limitations are considered and integrated with all system aspects. It is therefore crucial we understand:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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