Citation

Read GJ, Salmon PM, Lenné MG. Appl. Ergon. 2013; 44(5): 764-774.

Affiliation

Human Factors Group, Accident Research Centre, Monash Injury Research Institute, Building 70, Monash University, Victoria 3800, Australia. Electronic address: gemma.read@monash.edu.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2013, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.apergo.2013.01.007

PMID

23473696

Abstract

Collisions at rail level crossings are an international safety concern and have been the subject of considerable research effort. Modern human factors practice advocates a systems approach to investigating safety issues in complex systems. This paper describes the results of a structured review of the level crossing literature to determine the extent to which a systems approach has been applied. The measures used to determine if previous research was underpinned by a systems approach were: the type of analysis method utilised, the number of component relationships considered, the number of user groups considered, the number of system levels considered and the type of model described in the research. None of research reviewed was found to be consistent with a systems approach. It is recommended that further research utilise a systems approach to the study of the level crossing system to enable the identification of effective design improvements.

Language: en