Are gates at rail grade crossings always safe? Examining motorist gate-violation behaviors using path analysis

Abstract

Gates are installed at highway-rail grade crossings to prevent collisions between highway users and trains. However, sometimes motorists may intentionally go around or through the lowered gates and this behavior often causes severe crashes. The behavior of violating gates is one of the most dangerous actions a motorist might take at gated crossings; it may compromise the intended safety improvement made by adding gates at crossings. This study answers an important research question – what factors are associated with gate-violation at rail grade crossings. Answering this question extends the understanding of correlates of injury severity in rail grade crossing crashes. This study uses path analysis to explore the contributing factors to the gate-violation behavior and the correlation between gate-violation and injury severity. This study investigated 7129 crashes that occurred at gated crossings between 2005 and 2014 in the United States. Results show there is a 9.92% greater likelihood of gate-violation in crashes at crossing with two quadrant gates (compared with four quadrant gates), and gate-violation is associated with a 7.47% larger chance of being killed in a gated crossing crash. Therefore, through the path analysis, the crossings with two quadrant gates is related to a higher possibility of fatality given a crash, owing to the greater likelihood of gate-violation at such crossings. The study identifies the issue of gate-violation at gated crossings, and contributes to enhancing the understanding of gated crossing safety by incorporating pre-crash behaviors at highway-rail grade crossings.