Article: Victoria's level crossings remain the deadliest in the nation ...

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Victoria's level crossings remain the deadliest in the nation, report finds

Victoria's level crossings remain the deadliest in the nation, report finds
November 28, 2012 - 10:32PM Craig Butt

THE deadly reputation of Victoria's level crossings has been confirmed by a new report on rail safety.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau found that despite a drop in the number of rail deaths and serious injuries since the Kerang disaster in 2007, Victoria remains the worst state for level crossing deaths.

Between July 2002 and June 2012, 55 per cent of all incidents in which a person was struck by a train at a level crossing took place in Victoria. The state was also home to 32 per cent of level crossing collisions between trains and road vehicles.

RACV public policy general manager Brian Negus said the RACV has been calling for a program to ''eradicate'' the 172 level crossings in Melbourne.

He said five level crossings should be replaced each year over the next decade to improve safety and reduce traffic congestion around boom gates.

Naomi Frauenfelder of TrackSAFE, a rail industry initiative that seeks to reduce train network deaths, said drivers ignoring warning signs at level crossings or distracted pedestrians failing to pay attention to oncoming trains were the cause of many deaths.

''We've got the sixth largest rail network in the world and 23,000 level crossings, so we are going to have to drive behavioural change around these issues,'' Ms Frauenfelder said.

Victoria was over-represented in many measures of rail danger. About two out of five of the 350 train deaths in the past 10 years have been in Victoria, though about a quarter of Australia's population lives in the state.

The data records 139 people killed by trains in Victoria and 596 seriously injured over 10 years. There were 110 deaths in New South Wales, 47 in Queensland and 26 in South Australia.

The recorded deaths and injuries include those who were struck by trains, who fell between platforms or were on trains involved in collisions.

However, the data does not include death from suicide, which TrackSAFE estimates account for about two thirds of all rail deaths.

Rail deaths and serious injuries in Victoria peaked in 2007, in which 23 people died - 11 in the Kerang rail disaster - and 157 people were seriously injured. Since then, the number of people killed or seriously injured by trains has decreased to eight deaths and 39 serious injuries in 2011.

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/victorias-level-crossings-remain-the-deadliest-in-the-nation-report-finds-20121128-2aecf.html