130 participants on average online (180 registered) from 40 countries from all around the world (Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, India, South Korea, Middle East, Africa, USA, Central and South America).
Speakers from the road and the rail sectors from Europe, USA, New Zealand and Africa share information on their activities on road or rail safety.
Mrs. Megan Drayton, Foundation Manager, TrackSAFE Foundation New Zealand https://www.tracksafe.co.nz/ kindly met the challenge of giving a presentation after 23:00 in her country. She presented the rail network in New Zealand, the number of crossings, types of protection, number of fatalities and discussed the behaviour shown by pedestrians and motorists in metropolitan and urban areas. She presented some engineering and infrastructure initiatives underway to reduce risks at level crossings and highlighted the main safety campaigns carried out each year. She ended with a video “Near Miss Memorials” aimed at highlighting the impact of near misses on locomotive engineers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5WjJVuYRcSU
Mr. Franck Mütze, European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) www.etsc.eu: He stressed that every year, over 25,000 people die on European roads, of which 1% at level crossings. The number of level crossing fatalities though represent almost 29% of all rail fatalities. This is why this issue does not draw much attention to the road sector. This presentation explored the possibilities to improve safety at level crossings through new (vehicle) technologies, looking at both opportunities and challenges. He reported on the results of a research study of the Transport Research Laboratory (TRL) in the UK: Apple CarPlay and Android Auto infotainment systems weaken reactions more than alcohol and cannabis.
https://bit.ly/3hzhnog
Mrs. Anne Zwiers, Director level crossings at ProRail, Netherlands https://www.prorail.nl/ gave a short presentation through a video: she mentioned the latest collision with a tractor at a passive crossing in which unfortunately the train driver died. The video shows CCTV footage at level crossings showings various dangerous users’ behaviour. ProRail has different ambitions and programmes to improve safety at level crossings: eliminate LCs near stations, eliminate LCs with high traffic or passive crossings as soon as possible. ProRail wishes to innovate with new technologies and improve behaviour. Anne said that by 2050, they predict an increase of mobility by 30 to 40% therefore there is a need to take particular care of this special interface with the road. She mentioned the UIC Safer-LC toolbox: https://safer-lc.eu to propose solutions to improve safety at level crossings.
Link to ProRail video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hp6UujtcGVQ&feature=youtu.be
Mrs. Vassiliki Danelli-Mylona, President of BoD, Road Safety Institute, R.S.I. “Panos Mylonas” https://www.ioas.gr/EN/) reported on their partnership with the railway sector to improve safety at level crossings. RSI participated and supported ILCAD initiative from the very beginning in 2009, taking on board its member TRAINOSE in Greece. RSI “Panos Mylonas” was one of the first organisations to promote ILCAD coordinating the initiative in Greece, informing the Ministry, stakeholders and raising awareness for the citizens. Along with TRAINOSE the first ever survey on ccourtesy and safety on the road was conducted and soon after a contest took place for schools and universities creating posters and drawings on the concept of ILCAD, the Safety at Level Crossings. Press events took place along with visits/interviews at level crossings with the TRAINOSE CEO and the RSI President, broadcast at the National TV along with statistics and messages for safety. A brochure was also prepared along with videos we created and as a next step the ILCAD videos were converted into the Greek version for use in the social media, online media, of RSI posters exhibited in the train stations’, monitors/screens. The ILCAD-RSI-TRAINOSE partnership was strengthened with the establishment of the RAS. Partnership is one of the UN SDGs targets (17) - we have made this a reality even before the relevant announcement by the UN.
Mr. Kostas Kapetanidis, Head of Internal Audit Dept. of the Greek Regulatory Authority of Railways (RAS) http://www.ras-el.gr gave a short presentation of RAS actions to improve railway safety in LCs in Greece: In cooperation with OSE (Greek IM) they are running an information programme for students called “Guide for Safe Living with the Railway Network for Students”, which up today is presented to 130 schools and 20,000 students all over Greece. The presentation focuses on safety in Level Crossings. In cooperation with the Road Safety Institute, R.S.I. “Panos Mylonas” they participate for the second consecutive year in ILCAD.
Mr. Alain Autruffe, Director LC Programme, SNCF Réseau first shared level crossing safety statistics in France. He mentioned a large reduction of accidents at LCs in 2018, following the collision with a school bus on 14.12.2017 in Millas (South of France) which tends to demonstrate the importance of the risk conscience. But he stressed a high increase of collisions with pedestrians in 2019: epiphenomenon or deeper trend? Then he mentioned various past level crossing safety awareness campaigns and the 2020 campaign carried out by SNCF Réseau. https://www.prevention-ferroviaire.fr; https://www.sncf-reseau.com
Mr. Tamo Vahemets, CEO Operation Lifesaver (OL) Estonia https://ole.ee/en/ In cooperation between various state agencies and railway companies, multiple activities for enhancing railway safety are conducted every year at different levels. Over the recent years, our objective has been to create state-of-the-art educational materials dealing with railway safety. The presentation introduced the most recent railway safety campaign conducted and presented an overview of the new trends for preparing educational materials.
Mr. Martial Manfred Missimikim, CEO SECUROUTE AFRICA https://www.securouteafrica.org one of ILCAD’s participating countries presented the current situation of Level Crossing risks in Cameroon, the
partnerships between, the private sector, civil society and Government agencies. He then presented the 2020 ILCAD Awareness in Cameroon with an official launch of the six new standard level crossings in the cities of Yaoundé and Douala by the Ministry of Transport under the leadership of CAMRAIL in Partnerships with SECUROUTE. He then presented the Education programmes of vulnerable road users, awareness to increase knowledge and change drivers’ behaviour, Advocacy, Lobbying, Community Events Outreach, advocacy and road safety awareness campaigns to drivers, pedestrians, children’s and Motorcyclists.
Mrs. Rachel Maleh, Executive Director at Operation Lifesaver (OL) inc https://oli.org/ presented “How Operation Lifesaver, Inc. Contributes to Rail Incident Reduction in the U.S.” Her presentation provided background on how Operation Lifesaver, Inc. (OLI), the U.S. non-profit rail safety education organisation, has contributed to the reduction of collisions and casualties in the 48 years since its founding. The presentation will review OLI’s federal, state, and local partnerships and how the organization uses public awareness campaigns and grassroots efforts to raise awareness and improve community safety.
Videos in her presentation:
https://oli.org/media/near-miss-headphones
https://oli.org/media/rail-safety-cement-dump-and-garbage-truck-drivers
Mr. Allan Spence, Head of Corporate Passenger & Public Safety at Network Rail https://www.networkrail.co.uk/ and Chairman of the UIC Safety Platform Working Group “European Level Crossing Forum” (ELCF) summarised all presentations, stressed the key issues to retain, thanked all presenters for their great presentations and active and concrete contributions to make level crossing safe for users. He also warmly invited all participants in the today’s web-conference to take part in the physical launch conference of the 13th edition of ILCAD to be hosted by Network Rail as originally foreseen this year at the National Railway Museum of York on 10 June 2021.
Mr. Jerzy Wisniewski, UIC Director of the Fundamental Values Department, conveyed special regards to all on behalf of Mr. Francois Davenne, UIC Director General.
The 2020 ILCAD motto is: “All together we are stronger!” which summarises the needs to work all together to improve safety at level crossings, be from the road, or the rail sector, road and rail safety advocates, local authorities, decision makers, associations of victims, associations of local residents. Thanks to new technologies we met today with about 130 participants (180 registered) from 40 countries from all around the world (Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Middle East, Africa, USA, Central and South America).
He reminded the meeting that on 22 April UIC organised the final online conference of the EU SAFER-LC project coordinated by UIC to share the final results that are particularly interesting and effective for the stakeholders both in rail and road environment. To note among the most interesting outcomes of the project, a toolbox that was designed to help decision makers to increase safety at level crossings through practical recommendations. It will also enable policymakers and stakeholders to select and implement the most appropriate strategies, measures and cost-effective approaches to make level crossing safer for all road user types. We will continue exploiting the results of the project both in Europe and on a global scale. First through the SAFER-LC toolbox proposing hard measures for improving safety at level crossings and that hosted and updated by UIC after the project.
He also reported on the UIC coordinated project: DIGIM II stands for: (DIgital IMpacts on operations). In recognition of the importance of level crossing safety, and in continuation of the DIGIM I Connected Level Crossing project, DIGIM II project was launched in 2019, with eight participating members: SNCF, SBB, Network Rail, RAI, Via Rail Canada, Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane, CARS and Infraestruturas de Portugal and partnership with Dassault Systèmes
Last but not the least UIC is very committed with various institutional partners, to also promote soft measures through the “ILCAD” the annual “International Level Crossing Awareness Day”.
Today we had the opportunity to listen to various and very interesting speakers from the road and the rail sectors from Europe, USA, New Zealand and Africa. I have no doubt that you had enjoyed this conference and I am awaiting to meeting you all at the National Railway Museum in York to launch the next edition of ILCAD hosted by Network Rail on 10 June 2021.
With special thanks to Isabelle Fonverne for the online meeting organisation.
Isabelle Fonverne, UIC Senior Advisor Safety & Interoperability finally thanked all speakers and the countries participating in ILCAD. The latest onboard countries are Mauritius and Togo. She stressed that ILCAD is a real human adventure, and no matter the sector in which we work, our common goal is to SAVE LIVES! Because “all together we are stronger!
She also invited Spanish speaking participants to take part in the web-conference following the English one. It is co-organised by UTN.BA (Universidad Tecnológica Nacional, Facultad Regional Buenos Aires) Argentina – National University of Technology, Faculty Regional of Buenos Aires).
At the Argentinian conference
- Laura Lorenzo Carrascosa, FFE Spain https://ffe.es/ presented the UIC coordinated project Safer-LC project and the toolbox, to note that FFE was part of the consortium.
- Alfonso Escalera Alonso and Ramon Atochero Velasco from ADIF http://www.adif.es gave an overview of level crossing safety in Spain.
- Isabelle Fonverne gave a presentation on UIC, level crossing safety statistics and ILCAD 2020.
- Allan Spence said: “I was pleased that UIC and Isabelle Fonverne in particular have organised a special web conference today to promote International Level Crossing Awareness Day. ILCAD is a global initiative to promote safer use of level crossings. Hosted each year in a different country, it involves over 40 countries across the globe. Britain had been honoured to host the event this year, normally attracting around 200 delegates, but sadly COVID-19 intervened. So UIC has taken us on-line instead to share the vital messages.
Britain has made real level crossing safety progress through closures, better technology and campaigns like ILCAD. It’s still vital to educate users. With 5874 level crossings, we have just had the best ever year with two pedestrian deaths. But we have much more still to do.”
He finally invited all participants to attend the ILCAD 2021 launch conference in York on 10 June 2021.
Link to the programme: https://bit.ly/2UjLGWf
Link to the IAF-UTN ILCAD 2020 conference in Spanish : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISS2usZGKqY
Link to the conference in streaming: https://www.frba.utn.edu.ar/audiovisual/.
Visit: www.frba.utn.edu.ar; https://actividades.frba.utn.edu.ar
For more information please visit the new ILCAD website: www.ilcad.org
FRBA:
IAF:
