Evaluation of Safety at Railroad-Highway Grade Crossings

The motor vehicle-train accident, though infrequent, is the most severe in terms of fatalities, personal injuries, and property damage per accident of all types experienced on American highways. This type of accident, however, can be eliminated only by closing all crossings to highway traffic or by constructing grade separations for all rail-highway crossings. The delay and congestion resulting from the first alternative obviously would not be tolerated by the motoring public. Based on an estimated cost of separation improvements in Ohio, it would cost $5 billion to construct grade separations at the 10,800 grade crossings in Indiana. (4 )* Another alternative is to install modern flashing lights with short-arm gates at all crossings. Such an undertaking is estimated to reduce the number of accidents by a considerable amount, but the cost would be in excess of $150 million. (4 ) This figure is more realistic but still represents an enormous sum of money. Furthermore, the expenditure of this amount of money might well be more efficiently used for the prevention of other types of accidents. The national trend for rail-highway grade crossing accidents is decreasing, but the reverse is true in Indiana. Based on data compiled by the Interstate Commerce Commission at the close of 1953, the numbers of grade crossing accidents and fatalities in Indiana were among the highest in the nation. Indiana was exceeded only by Arkansas in grade crossing accidents per million cars registered and grade crossing deaths per million cars registered. (4)