Technology to save lives at rail crossings

A $5.5 million, three-year series of trials, using La Trobe University technology which aims to save lives by cutting collisions at railway crossings, began on Melbourne’s Frankston line in May. It has been created to extend driver ‘vision’ up to one kilometre.

It involves up to 100 cars, a specially equipped Metro train and two level crossings, all in direct ‘communication’ with each other via a dedicated ‘mobile-phone-style’ wireless network and integrated GPS.

The project is led by Professor Jugdutt (Jack) Singh, director of the university’s Centre for Technology Infusion. According to him, it is the largest-known rail crossing safety study of its kind in the world.

The Melbourne trial, which runs until the end of June, will assess the effectiveness of the technology and the reaction of drivers using it. The aim is to have the system in new cars as early as 2014 and it can also be retrofitted to existing cars. The system has the added potential of creating export markets for Australian technology.

Initially carried out at night, the trial was supervised by Dr Aniruddha Desai, senior research fellow from the Centre for Technology Infusion, with an operations crew of about 28 people, including 10 centre staff.

Prof Singh says with more than 600 rail and vehicle crashes at level crossings in Australia during the last decade, the technology could prevent, and hopefully eliminate, collisions and save many lives. There are about 9500 level crossings on Australian public roads. About 2000 of those are in Victoria. Only a third have flashing lights or boom barriers.

The system will trial different warning messages for drivers: for example, “a train is coming, slow down” and “a collision is about to happen” - with all bells and whistles blaring, to see how drivers react.

The trial will assess not only the technology, but also the reaction of drivers, who tend to make split-second decisions.