posted on 2024-10-16, 00:03authored byAldo RaineriAldo Raineri, Ivan Cikara, Geoffrey Dell, Shevaun Dell
This study thematically analysed the publicly available investigation reports completed by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) of collisions between heavy vehicles and trains at level crossings that occurred between 2000 to 2019. The analysis identified that the investigations were varied in complexity, content and information and found there was a focus on heavy vehicle driver behaviour resulting in human error and limited examination of the deficiencies at the organisational level and other underlying factors that could influence heavy vehicle driver behaviour. The study argues that to prevent a recurrence of a crash it is critical to identify and analyse all the underlying causal factors of a crash. When driver behaviour is identified as a causal factor it just may be the end result of a causal sequence that was first triggered by a foundation of organisational deficiencies likely to have commenced long before the crash occurred.