2013 Session: 520

• Examination of Factors Affecting Frequency and Severity of Crashes at Rail-Grade Crossings
  Abstract: Collisions at highway-rail grade crossings, although relatively rare events, are a critical safety concern as these types of crashes tend to be among the most severe in terms of resultant injuries and fatalities. This study assessed the effects of railway, highway, traffic, and driver characteristics on the frequency and severity of highway-railroad grade collisions. Crash frequency was examined by estimating a negative binomial model, which showed various factors to affect the frequency of crashes experienced on a site-specific basis, including: train speed limits; the number of traffic lanes; annual average daily traffic; daily train traffic; the presence of signal preemption; crossing angles; warning gates; and adjacent land use. Injury severity was examined through the development of an ordinal logit model, which showed that the degree of injury sustained as a result of train-involved crashes was influenced by: train speeds, driver age and gender, and motorist behavior at the highway-rail grade crossing.
  Authors: Russo, Brendan; Savolainen, Peter Tarmo
  Authors: Russo, Brendan; Savolainen, Peter Tarmo
  Year: 2013
  Document Type: Paper
  Subject: Safety and Human Factors; Railroads; Rail
  Session: 520
  Paper Number: 13-0163
• Impact of European Railway Traffic Management System on Human Performance in Railway Operations: European Findings
  Abstract: The safety of railway system operations depends on several internal factors including rail traffic rules, infrastructure, rolling stock reliability, organisational safety culture and human factors. In order to improve capacity and efficiency the railway systems in Europe, North America and Australasia have seen significant technological developments. For instance, Europe has seen the advancement of the European Railway Traffic Management System (ERTMS). However, a transition to a more automated traffic management system requires amongst others changes to infrastructure, rolling stock to operational procedures. Concerning the latter, literature shows that train drivers, signallers and controllers have the most impact on the safety of a railway network. Therefore, the reliability and safety integrity of the railway network is largely dependent on human factors and specifically the performance of the human operators, which can be affected by a number of factors broadly known as Performance Shaping Factors (PSFs). Amongst them “deficiencies in communication” is a major PSF, which contributes to over 90% of rail incidents.On account of that, this paper investigates the influence of ERTMS and in particular of the Global System for Mobile Communications-Railway (GSM-R) on operators’ performance. Accident and incident reports of railway operations prior and post GSM-R implementation from several European railway organisations are analysed. The results identify the communication related factors that mostly affect human performance in both cases based on the existing Railway Performance Shaping Factors Taxonomy. The findings are used to address the plausible changes on identified PSFs post GSM-R implementation
  Authors: Smith, Peri; Kyriakidis, Miltos; Majumdar, Arnab; Ochieng, Washington Y.
  Authors: Smith, Peri; Kyriakidis, Miltos; Majumdar, Arnab; Ochieng, Washington Y.
  Year: 2013
  Document Type: Paper
  Subject: Safety and Human Factors; Railroads; Rail
  Session: 520
  Paper Number: 13-0851
  Practice-Ready: Yes
• Framework for Evaluating Cost-Effectiveness of Accident Prevention Strategies Under Uncertainty
  Abstract: Rational allocation of resources to reduce train accident occurrence in the most cost-effective manner is important for the rail industry and government. Accident prevention strategies, individually and in combination, may result in different safety benefits and corresponding implementation costs. An appropriate assessment of the cost-effectiveness of accident prevention strategies is an important step to evaluate, develop and prioritize safety improvement investments. Both the safety benefit and implementation cost of a strategy may be subject to uncertainty at the time of decision making. However, little prior research has considered the effect of uncertainty in evaluating train accident prevention strategies. Properly accounting for this uncertainty can improve the efficient allocation of safety resources. This paper presents a framework to conduct an uncertainty-based, cost-benefit analysis. The types and sources of uncertainty are identified and statistical models are developed to quantify the effect of uncertainty. The results can aid the rail industry and government to develop more cost-effective strategies to maximize safety given limited resources.
  Authors: Liu, Xiang; Saat, M. Rapik; Barkan, Christopher P. L.
  Authors: Liu, Xiang; Saat, M. Rapik; Barkan, Christopher P. L.
  Year: 2013
  Document Type: Paper
  Subject: Safety and Human Factors; Railroads; Rail
  Session: 520
  Paper Number: 13-1813
• Developing and Testing Model of Data Quality for Safety Management Information Systems: Exploratory Study in British Railway Industry
  Abstract: Safety management information systems gather comprehensive information about safety critical incidents and accidents. They provide the basis for safety analysis and risk modelling and are thus used for strategic and operational decision-making for instance in maintenance planning and accident prevention. Therefore, data quality plays a fundamental role for the validity and reliability of safety management. In this paper a model of data quality is developed and applied to the SMIS database of the British railway industry. The model defines data quality categories and dimensions, which are used for an assessment and the subsequent identification of improvement areas. The proposed model of data quality is tested comprehensively by a triangulated approach analysing the quality of a dataset of 7,221 workforce assaults and comparing the findings to the perceptions of data quality by safety managers from 10 of Britain’s largest passenger railway operators. The study reveals the importance of data quality checks and discusses relevant steps in assessing data quality within safety management information systems. Beyond this, the study identifies a lack of alignment to organization-specific processes as a major root cause of poorer data quality. This aspect is particularly interesting to centrally operated industry-wide safety management systems.
  Authors: Kudla, Nicole; Majumdar, Arnab
  Authors: Kudla, Nicole; Majumdar, Arnab
  Year: 2013
  Document Type: Paper
  Subject: Safety and Human Factors; Railroads; Rail
  Session: 520
  Paper Number: 13-2396
  Practice-Ready: Yes
• Examination of Factors Affecting Frequency and Severity of Crashes at Rail-Grade Crossings
  Authors: Russo, Brendan
  Authors: Russo, Brendan
  Year: 2013
  Document Type: Presentation
  Subject: Rail; Safety and Human Factors
  Session: 520
  Paper Number: 13-0163
• Framework for Evaluating Cost-Effectiveness of Accident Prevention Strategies Under Uncertainty
  Authors: Liu, Xiang
  Authors: Liu, Xiang
  Year: 2013
  Document Type: Presentation
  Subject: Rail; Safety and Human Factors
  Session: 520
  Paper Number: 13-1813
• Impact of European Railway Traffic Management System on Human Performance in Railway Operations: European Findings
  Authors: Smith, Peri
  Authors: Smith, Peri
  Year: 2013
  Document Type: Presentation
  Subject: Rail; Safety and Human Factors
  Session: 520
  Paper Number: 13-0851
• Developing and Testing Model of Data Quality for Safety Management Information Systems: Exploratory Study in British Railway Industry
  Authors: Kudla, Nicole
  Authors: Kudla, Nicole
  Year: 2013
  Document Type: Presentation
  Subject: Rail; Safety and Human Factors
  Session: 520
  Paper Number: 13-2396