Abstract
A special element of road safety research is accidents at the interface of the road and rail system. Due to their low share in the total number of incidents, they are not a popular subject of analyses but rather an element of collective studies, whereas the specificity of the road–rail accidents requires a separate characteristic, allowing, on the one hand, to categorize these types of incidents, and on the other, to specify the factors that affect them, along with an assessment of the strength of this impact. It is important to include in such analyses all potential predictors, both qualitative and quantitative. Moreover, the literature considers most often a number of accidents while, according to the authors, it does not fully reflect the scale of the danger. A better evaluation would be the victim’s degree of injury. Therefore, the purpose of this article is to assess the likelihood of occurrence of various effects of road–rail accidents in the aspect of selected factors. Due to the ordinal form of the dependent variable, the classification trees method was used. The results obtained not only allow the characterization and assessment of the danger but also constitute guidelines for taking preventive actions.
Highlights
Railroad transport safety is an important factor taken into account when evaluating the operation of this branch of transport
The CART algorithm was used for the construction of decision trees
The classification trees are a flexible, user-friendly, and easy-to-interpret tool for analyzing large sets of observations, consisting of many variables. Their biggest advantages include transparency and readability of the result presented in the form of rules, as well as no requirements for the form and distribution of variables
Summary
Railroad transport safety is an important factor taken into account when evaluating the operation of this branch of transport. Scope and consequences for society and economy of the low level of traffic safety, it is the subject of many studies and analyses and is systematically evaluated [1,2,3]. According to the latest annual reports/statistics from the International Union of Railways (UIC), the number of railroad accidents is decreasing [4,5]. The European Union Agency for Railways (ERA) reports are optimistic. The latest reported safety level is historically the highest, . In Poland, according to the latest data [7], both the overall number of railroad accidents and fatalities decreased
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
