Driver behavior analysis at highway-rail grade crossings using field operational test data - heavy trucks

Ngamdung, Tashi; da Silva, Marco P. · 2012 · ROSA P / United States. Federal Railroad Administration. Office of Research and Development

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Summary

This study analyzes heavy-truck driver behavior at highway-rail grade crossings to identify risky actions that contribute to collisions. Motivated by the Federal Railroad Administration’s priority to evaluate driver behavior and improve safety treatments, the research aims to provide foundational data for developing driver education and awareness strategies. Although commercial vehicle incident rates had decreased significantly between 1994 and 2010, they remained nearly three times higher than those for other vehicle types, highlighting the continued need for targeted safety interventions. The researchers utilized data from the Integrated Vehicle-Based Safety System (IVBSS) Heavy Truck Field Operational Test, which involved 18 commercial drivers (10 pickup and delivery, 8 line-haul) operating research vehicles over 10 months. The study focused on 3,171 grade crossing events identified through a custom software suite that cross-referenced GPS data with grade crossing locations in Michigan, Ohio, and Indiana. Researchers coded video footage from five in-vehicle cameras to record driver activities, looking behavior, distraction levels, and environmental conditions during the approach to and traversal of crossings. Key findings revealed significant instances of distracted and unsafe driving behaviors. On average, drivers engaged in secondary tasks, such as using phones, eating, or talking to passengers, approximately 20.8% of the time while traversing grade crossings. Pickup and delivery drivers, as well as those with fewer than 22 years of Commercial Driver’s License (CDL) experience, exhibited higher rates of distraction compared to line-haul drivers and those with more experience. Regarding visual scanning, drivers failed to look left or right on approach to passive grade crossings (those without gates) about 41% of the time. Conversely, drivers looked at least one way 60.5% of the time overall. Younger drivers (under 47 years old) and those with more CDL experience were more likely to scan for trains than their older or less experienced counterparts. The study concludes that specific demographic and operational factors influence driver safety behaviors at grade crossings. The high prevalence of distraction and inadequate visual scanning, particularly among less experienced drivers and those operating in pickup and delivery roles, suggests a need for targeted educational interventions. By identifying these behavioral patterns, the research provides evidence-based insights to guide the development of strategies aimed at mitigating risky driver behavior and reducing highway-rail grade crossing incidents.

Key finding

Heavy truck drivers engaged in distracting secondary tasks approximately 20.8 percent of the time at grade crossings and failed to look for trains on approach to passive crossings about 41 percent of the time.

Methodology

field_study

Sample size: 3171

Provenance

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Summary generated by qwen3.6-27b-prismaquant on 2026-06-10; verification: verified.

Topics

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• rail grade crossings
• driver vru interaction

Information type

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• Empirical Findings: observational prevalence, behavioral performance data
• Methodological Resource: dataset resource