Highway–rail grade crossings (HRGCs) are locations where roadways and railway tracks intersect at the same level. Due to the shared level of travel and the substantial mass disparity between trains and highway users, collisions at these crossings tend to be catastrophic. As a result, HRGC crashes represent a major public safety concern in the United States. While previous studies have evaluated contributing factors to crash severity, there has been limited focus on the role of highway users’ action and its influence on crash severity. This study aims to examine all relevant factors, with a particular focus on highway user actions. The dataset, sourced from the Federal Railroad Administration’s database, includes data from six states between 2013 and 2022, specifically addressing severity and contributing factors. The proportional analysis highlights that highway user actions such as “went around the gate”, “did not stop”, and “stopped on the crossing” dominantly contribute to crash severity. A multinomial logistic regression was employed to identify significant determinants of crash severity. Odds ratio analysis reveals that “went around the gate” significantly increases the risk of fatal injuries across all six states, with odds ratios ranging from 3.45 in California to 4.55 in Georgia. The findings provide data-driven insights that can support the development of targeted safety countermeasures and intelligent traffic management strategies to enhance safety at HRGCs.
Badshah et al. (Tue,) studied this question.