Skip to main content

New guidelines on level crossing safety to help save lives

Road transport organisation the IRU, the International Union of Railways (UIC) and Operation Lifesaver Estonia (OLE) have joined forces to raise awareness about level crossing safety amongst transport professionals. Their recently-published Level Crossing Safety aims to raise awareness of professional drivers of how to avoid risks potentially leading to a collision and reduce related accidents at this key interface between road and rail infrastructure. The United Nations Economic Commission for Europe
May 10, 2016 Read time: 2 mins
Road transport organisation the IRU, the International Union of Railways (UIC) and Operation Lifesaver Estonia (OLE) have joined forces to raise awareness about level crossing safety amongst transport professionals.

Their recently-published Level Crossing Safety aims to raise awareness of professional drivers of how to avoid risks potentially leading to a collision and reduce related accidents at this key interface between road and rail infrastructure.

The United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) 1968 Convention on Road Traffic and the Highway Code, states that “trains have priority, whilst road users and pedestrians must comply with road signs and signals in order to cross safely and consequently prevent any collision arising from misuse or inappropriate behaviour and potentially endangering train passengers, crew and other users.”

Global freight and passenger traffic, both road and rail, have increased markedly in recent decades, increasing the risks of collisions at level crossings and, in addition to raising driver awareness, the three organisations hope to enhance knowledge and safety in their design and use.

Related Content

  • Invisible barriers: how urban transport fails women – and how we can solve it
    March 7, 2025
    Gender equality should be a reality in our cities, not just an aspiration
  • Nema's updated signage standards are key to managing the variables
    June 7, 2024
    National Electrical Manufacturers Association’s revision of standards relating to variable message signs will help to improve interoperability and reflect changes in vehicle technology
  • Proposed system to take guesswork out of choosing a freeway lane
    March 17, 2014
    A fledgling advanced lane management assist system can take the guesswork out of selecting the right lane on a congested freeway, as its inventor Robert Gordon explains. As drivers we’ve all done it and control room staff see it all the time – motorists on congested freeways switching into what they perceive is a faster lane, only to come to a halt a few moments later and watch vehicles in the other lanes continue to move past. Now, by re-analysing readily available data in an advanced lane management as
  • Research reveals perceptions, safety and use of protected bike lanes
    June 6, 2014
    A research study released by the US National Institute for Transportation and Communities (NITC) program offers the most comprehensive evaluation of protected cycle lanes to date. The study, Lessons from the Green Lanes, examines recently installed protected bike lanes in five of the six founding PeopleForBikes Green Lane Project cities and provides the scientific basis for decisions that could improve bicycling in cities across the United States. Protected bike lanes, sometimes called cycle tracks, are