Human Behaviour Key to Reducing Rail Level Crossing Incidents
Following the announcement by The Honourable Anthony Albanese MP, Federal Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government, of the $150m budget allocation for 200 high risk rail crossings, Local and State Government agencies now have, on average, $750,000 per crossing with which to immediately reduce the risks faced by road and rail users in their communities.
Tragically, there are about 100 serious accidents at level crossings in Australia every year. Recent serious accidents and deaths highlight the ineffectiveness of current systems, which simply fail to attract a driver’s attention far enough in advance of a crossing, to advise them as they approach the boom gates, that they need to SLOW DOWN AND STOP!
A holistic solution to risk reduction, involving combinations of boom gates, improved signage, other advisory and alert systems, is now made easier with the release of an Australian developed ‘Advance Warning System’ called SafeZone, that was designed expressly to deliver improved safety by ensuring the messages all the other warning systems provide are PAID ATTENTION TO!
SafeZone addresses safety, primarily targeting human behaviour by awakening & stimulating the subconscious brain & heightening a motorist’s state of mind and level of alertness. Motorists approaching a high risk rail level crossing are repeatedly alerted, awoken with an advanced warning when a train is on approach to the crossing.
Why it’s important to know about SafeZone is that for less than 15% of the allocated funds per crossing, planners and project managers can deliver perhaps the most marked improvements in safety, when coupled with other, established solutions. With boom gates costing between $200,000 and $400,000 to have installed, SafeZone, at around $80,000 per site, is not only an effective tool in the safety improvement arsenal, but a very affordable one.
Developers Inventis Technology, based in Sydney, created SafeZone specifically to address road and rail safety improvements via a system that could easily be integrated with other warning systems faster, more easily and less expensively, and in a wider range of physical locations, whether metropolitan or rural.
SafeZone can be deployed by Local Councils, as well as by State and private authorities, with minimal designer and works crew training, minimal back-end integration with existing control and management systems, and maximum effect.
SafeZone does not compete with existing, established technologies, but rather enhances them. And because it’s an intelligent system, it can be adapted to a range of applications. In short, it couples outstanding price/performance and fl exibility, to deliver an immediate solution to a long term problem. Further, it’s being reviewed for rail SPAD (‘Signal Passed At Danger’) applications to reduce the risk and incidence of derailments, collisions, infrastructure damage, service disruptions and deaths, as part of a broader approach to safety improvements on private, state and national rail services.
