Grade-Crossing Safety

Abstract

Official statistics showed that the majority of grade-crossing accidents in Taiwan were caused by intrusion of road users violating the right-of-way of the railroad. Therefore, it is critical that additional measures need to be developed to prevent or mitigate the seriousness of intrusion incidences even though many warning facilities were already in place. In this article, we propose to use the real-time crossing site image, instead of alarm signals, to provide train drivers with more vital information. In addition, we also take advantage of the radio-link capacity to display numerical information of train distance on the fly to deter potential intrusion attempts. The result of this project can be used as a reference design for the augmentation of grade-crossing safety of rail systems facing similar intrusion problems.