Rail crossing safety questioned in France

The safety of rail crossings is being questioned in France. This follows a fatal collision involving a school bus and a train. Five of the children on the bus were killed in the crash, with another 18 people being injured, including 14 children. The bus had been carrying 20 children when it was involved in the collision with the train, at a crossing close to the Spanish border and around 18km west of Perpignan. The crossing is said to have been functioning correctly according to the French rail operator, SN
December 20, 2017 Read time: 1 min

The safety of rail crossings is being questioned in France. This follows a fatal collision involving a school bus and a train. Five of the children on the bus were killed in the crash, with another 18 people being injured, including 14 children. The bus had been carrying 20 children when it was involved in the collision with the train, at a crossing close to the Spanish border and around 18km west of Perpignan. The crossing is said to have been functioning correctly according to the French rail operator, SNCF. Following this collision there were 36 people killed in crashes at rail crossings in France during 2017, compared with 31 for 2016. However according to the Transport Ministry, human error is the cause of 98% of collisions at rail crossings.

Related Content

  • Young Driver Risk
    April 16, 2018
    Police in the US state of Ohio recently found themselves in a high-speed pursuit involving a vehicle taken without its owner’s consent. The chase lasted for around one hour and the vehicle hit speeds of up to 160km/h during the pursuit, which covered a distance of around 72km in all between Cleveland and Milan. Officers managed to box the car in and bring it to a halt, without anyone being injured. The driver was a 10-year-old boy who took his mother’s car, the second time that the lad had done this in just
    Read More
  • Ireland’s road safety is improving, slowly
    November 11, 2019
    Ireland’s road safety levels are improving, but perhaps more slowly than is desirable. In 2018 there were 142 road deaths in Ireland. A significant improvement over the last 20 years where compared with the 458 road deaths in the country seen in 1998. Of note is that for 2014-2018, 25% of all fatal crashes and 20% of crashes involving serious injuries occurred during the 22.00-06.00 period when traffic volumes are typically low. In addition, 75% of crashes occurring from 2013-2016 in the 22.00-06.00 period
    Read More
  • France’s ageing bridge problem highlighted
    August 17, 2018
    The recent fatal bridge disaster in the Italian city of Genoa has triggered questions being asked about the state of France’s bridges. And with around 33% of France’s 12,000 or so bridges now known to require repairs, there is an understandable cause for concern.
    Read More
  • Concern at poor US road safety
    August 29, 2018
    Concern is being expressed in the US by the National Safety Council (NSC), which believes the country’s road safety is making no progress. According to the NSC, the current trends suggest that the US will see no reductions in road deaths for the third consecutive year. Its preliminary estimates suggest that the US will again have a road fatality rate of around 40,000 for 2018. There were around 18,720 road fatalities for the first six months of 2018, according to the NSC’s data, compared with around 18,770
    Read More

Highlighted Content