Prioritizing Road Safety Educational Initiatives at Level Crossings

The Australian government has been taking measures to enhance road safety at level crossings, following a rise in train crashes. The installation of boom gates and automation of warning signals have contributed to a decrease in accidents. Additionally, the government has increased penalties for violating safety rules. However, there is still room for improvement, with experts suggesting that the human factor plays a significant role in ensuring safety at these crossings.

Running head: SAFETY AND RISK MANAGEMENT
Car-train collide at Black Forest in Adelaide
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SAFETY AND RISK MANAGEMENT
Thesis statement: The analysis of the safety breaches contributing to train crashes in
Australia and the policies and practices that government have taken up due to increased train
collisions.
In, Australia there has been many cases of train crash, which is mainly occurring
because of train collision on the same tract, due to technical faults trains are getting
distracted, obstructions in the tract or due to landslides. Rail Industry safety and Standard
board in Australia is found developing its dense model of safety risk so that they can meet the
needs of this industry. However, train collisions mainly take place due to safety breaches by
the drivers. Here, safety breach is mainly the violation or break of the safety rules or
regulations. Therefore, in this essay the discussion is done based on a particular train crash in
Australia that has taken place due to safety breaches and what policies and practices the
government came up with after this incident.
The chosen rail crash is the Car and train collides which took place at Black Forest in
Adelaide on 6 September 2017. This train crash took place at around 3.30pm on 6 September,
Wednesday at the Emerson Railway crossing. The accident took place because a car got fixed
under the boom gates in a busy intersection. However, the accident took place when a woman
who was driving a Mercedes actually was stuck in a boom gate at the busy intersection. She
was so scared watching the train heading towards her that she started panicking. Thus, she
persisted moving forward through the rail crossing when the train hit the car. Sources have
stated that the train was heard sounding its horn several times before it strike its brakes and
banging into the car. This woman was taken to the hospital with serious injury to her
abdominal area (Read, Salmon & Lenné, 2013).
It is very clear that safety breaches are the real reason contributing to this train crash.
Firstly, the safety violation occurred when the car driver did not pay any attention to the

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flashing red light at the level crossing. If she would have paid the attention then definitely
before getting stucked she would have known that train is approaching. The train driver has
been found giving horn several of the time but until then the situation was out of control
(Naweed, 2013). This proves that the Mercedes driver was not paying full attention while
driving and crossing the busy intersection. Lastly, the car driver should not have continued to
go forward through the railway crossing rather she should have immediately drive the car
back, off the track or she should have get out of the car other than panicking. However, here
the train driver strikes its brake but it is not possible for him to stop the train and so it banged
the car. It has been reported that the boom gate was inspected just an hour before the
accident took place. This proves that no one must risk and try to push their luck in these busy
crossings (Young et al., 2015). It is always important to be extra conscious when heading
towards the railway crossing and the drivers should have a habit of stopping; viewing and
listening to any kind of signals by the train and so full control of the drivers are very much
needed (Schömig & Metz, 2013).
Thus, the Australian government has been very conscious about the safety measures
related to railway accidents. The rail safety law was the first to be enacted in the South
Australia and each of its states and territories has moved a law defining that the Rail Safety
national law is the safety law of that particular state which is south Australian. It however,
initiates the ONRSR as a body who is responsible for the safety regulation of railways in that
particular state or the territory (King, 2016). However, after these accidents the government
has increased the penalties as well as the consciousness of the running railway crossing. The
government is expending about $1 million dollar to establish boom gates at the busy
junctions of the level crossings. Australian government thinks that boom gates are the best
option for any busy level crossing (Dobson, 2016).

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Railway accidents at the level crossings in Australia are an important cause of worry
for the both the authorities of rail and road. However, due to governmental safety policies and
regulations recently railway crashes as fallen (Rudin-Brown et al., 2012). However, with the
present improvement in railways safety at the level crossing in Australia has become the
urgent priority for this area. The biggest drawback however is that there has been sizeable
recognition concerning the significance of the human factor nearing to the safety of level
crossing. There have been little or no attempts made by the authorities to scientifically
advance and measure the success of the road safety educational involvements. Thus, there is
still an important need for the progressing road safety educational involvements to enhance
present risk management output at the railway level crossings (Salmon et al., 2017).
There are still many requirements for improving the safety as the rail safety experts
suggests. However, there has been installation of boom gates at each level crossing and the
government is still working to upgrade level crossings all over Australia. Apart from focusing
only in the level crossings, Australian government has updated the warning signals, which are
now automated (Evans, 2013). Along with the railway safety measures, the Australian
government has also reduced the speed limits at the level crossing. Lastly, it had increased
the penalties and punishments for those who will be caught for violating safety measures. As
these policies and regulations have been started to be implemented thus it is seen that there
has been less number of accidents as compared to the previous years (Tombs & Whyte,
2013).
To conclude this report, it can be said that due to the increasing train crashes in
Australia recently their government became conscious and have started taking measures. The
Car and train collision that took place at Black Forest in Adelaide on 6 September 2017 at
Emerson Railway crossing where the car driver was stuck in the boom gates. It was clear that
safety breaches contributed for this accident. The car driver was inattentive and so she was

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unable to perceive the flashing red light. Thus, after this the government became stricter with
the safety rules at the boom gates, raising the penalties and punishments for violating those
rules.

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