The Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH) recently held an event to demonstrate how people can avoid incident while using or working near manually operated rail crossings.
More than half of all near-misses between trains and vehicles at level crossings in Britain occur at user-worked crossings (UWCs) – where the user has to open and shut a gate, or lift a barrier themselves, in order to cross rail track.
IOSH Rural Industries and Railway Groups are working together to raise awareness of the issue through a free event which includes a live demonstration of good practice around UWCs and other rail level-crossings.
Keith Morey, Chair of the IOSH Railway Group, said: “People do not necessarily understand how dangerous a user-worked crossing can be.
“If you go back to the early railway, people had tracks built across their land and these crossings were a way of still having access to it. Where there was once a 40mph steam train using the track though, you now have an 80mph diesel or electric-powered express engine.
“Given that the Rail Safety and Standards Board (RSSB) have identified level-crossings as one of its 12 strategic priority areas, it seems the logical step for us to help people understand the risks.”
Alan Plom, vice-chair of the IOSH Rural Industries Group, said: “There is a worrying lack of awareness of the simple precautions that must be followed at user-worked crossings.
“We have identified agricultural workers, contractors and other visitors to farms as a key target audience because they commonly encounter UWCs while working on farmland bisected by rail track.
“There have been a number of recent events which have highlighted the dangers of small farm crossings and user-worked crossings. Not only are trains faster nowadays, modern farm machinery is also a lot bigger and quieter, which can increase the risk of incidents occurring.”
