Close call at dangerous crossing.
Date
August 2, 2013
A driver had a ''miraculous escape'' after his car and a train collided at one of the state's most dangerous level crossings on Thursday.
The accident at the Furlong Road crossing in Sunshine North disrupted services on the Sunbury line between Sunshine and St Albans.
An Ambulance Victoria spokeswoman said a man in his 20s had a miraculous escape and was taken to Western Hospital in Footscray with minor injuries.
The four-door white SUV sustained heavy damage to its rear and the front end was crumpled by the impact of the crash, with the train pushing it into an adjacent traffic light and electricity pole.
In 2008 the Transport Department ranked the Furlong Road crossing as among the most dangerous in the state. Three people were killed there in a single accident in 2004 with at least one other fatality 10 years earlier.
In October 2011, 15-year-old Teresa Ho died when she was hit by V/Line train after she apparently failed to heed warning lights and alarms when she opened pedestrian gates at Ginifer railway station, just metres from the crossing. Witnesses said she was listening to music at the time.
Despite passionate pleas from friends and family of victims, the state government at the time ruled out an urgent upgrade of the dangerous crossing.
According to Monash University's Accident Research Centre, 120 people were killed at level crossings between 2001 and 2009 in Victoria; 172 people were injured during the same period.
The centre is halfway through a four-year study into rail crossings. The research is concentrating on driver behaviour at railway crossings, including where drivers look as they approach a crossing and what grabs their attention. Monitoring the number of head checks and tracking eye movement are among the techniques being used to study drivers.
Early data from the study, led by Michael Lenne, suggests that drivers with less experience depend more on warnings such as bells and flashing lights. They also tend to scan less - and later - for trains than experienced drivers.
Overall, drivers performed a greater number of head checks when approaching a crossing with ''give way'' signs, as opposed to a crossing with gates, bells and lights.
There are about 6000 crossings in Australia without boom gates.
So far the study has taken place only on rural Victorian roads, although metropolitan observations will begin soon.
Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/close-call-at-dangerous-crossing-20130801-2r29l.html#ixzz2akohNxeN
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