Treatments Used at Pedestrian Crossings of Public Transit Rail Services (2015)

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CHAPTER 3: TRANSIT CRASH DATABASES OVERVIEW OF AVAILABLE CRASH DATABASES There are two primary sources of data related to collisions between transit rail vehicles and pedestrians. Light rail and streetcar safety data are through the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) and commuter rail safety data are through FRA. The following section highlights the major online crash databases available from both entities and presents analyses of these databases. Federal Transit Administration – National Transit Database The FTA National Transit Database (NTD) indicates that the United States Congress established the NTD to be the primary source for information and statistics on the transit systems of the United States (35). The FTA Safety & Security Manual lists the legislative requirement for the NTD as follows: TITLE 49 SECTION 5335 National Transit Database (a) NATIONAL TRANSIT DATABASE — To help meet the needs of individual public transportation systems, the United States Government, State and local governments, and the public for information on which to base public transportation service planning, the Secretary of Transportation shall maintain a reporting system, using uniform categories to accumulate public transportation financial and operating information and using a uniform system of accounts. The reporting and uniform systems shall contain appropriate information to help any level of government make a public sector investment decision. The Secretary may request and receive appropriate information from any source. (b) REPORTING AND UNIFORM SYSTEMS — the Secretary may award a grant under Section 5307 or 5311 only if the applicant and any person that will receive benefits directly from the grant, are subject to the reporting and uniform systems (36). The NTD Program involves four reporting modules, each consisting of a series of data modules. The four reporting modules include: • NTD Annual Reporting. • NTD Monthly Reporting. • NTD Safety and Security Reporting. • NTD Rural Reporting (exclusively rural reporters). Transit rail collisions are reporting as part of the Safety and Security module. The FTA Safety & Security Manual provides guidance for reporting safety and security incidents to the NTD Program. Within the NTD Safety and Security Reporting module, the Major Incident Report (S&S-40) form is used to report detailed information on the most severe incidents, and the Safety Monthly Summary Report (S&S-50) form is used to summarize the number of non- major fires and other non-major safety incidents. For both of these forms, all reporting transit agencies without waivers are required to report, except commuter rail and the Alaska Railroad. 21

Both commuter rail and the Alaska Railroad report security incidents to the NTD but safety reporting falls under the guidance of FRA. Reportable incidents within the Safety and Security module are defined as an event that is related to or affects revenue service and meets one or more reporting thresholds: • A fatality due to an incident including suicides, but excluding deaths by natural causes, or deaths not associated with an incident. • One or more persons immediately transport away from the scene for medical attention. • Property damage equal to or exceeding $25,000. • An evacuation due to life safety reasons (36). The Safety and Security data are available at the FTA NTD Program website (http://www.ntdprogram.gov/ntdprogram/data.htm). Two Microsoft Excel® spreadsheets are available for download: Safety & Security Time Series Data, which includes data from forms S&S-40 and S&S-50, and Safety & Security Major-Only time Series Data, which only includes form S&S-40. Both databases include annual incident data for each transit agency, by specific mode. Rail collisions are reported for cable cars, heavy rail, inclined plane, light rail, monorail/guideway, streetcar, or hybrid rail modes. Pedestrian-specific data were not collected prior to 2008, but beginning in 2008, fatality and injury numbers are presented for the following pedestrian categories, according to the Safety & Security Manual: • Pedestrian in Crossing – Number of pedestrians in crosswalks killed/injured. • Pedestrian Not in Crossing – Number of pedestrians not in crosswalks killed/injured. • Pedestrian Crossing Tracks – Number of pedestrians crossing tracks killed/injured. • Pedestrian Walking Along Tracks – Number of pedestrians walking along tracks killed/injured. The crosswalk in the definitions above also relates to grade crossings, which are defined as “intersections of a road/highway/street/pedestrian path and rail lines or railroad tracks, or the intersection of two rail lines” (36). The manual makes a special note that grade crossings can be a pedestrian-only crossing. Other person categories included in the NTD Safety and Security data are passenger, revenue fare occupant, employee, other worker, bicyclist, other vehicle occupant, trespasser, and suicide. The NTD Safety and Security databases lag behind about 90 days and are released about the fourth day of each month. Therefore, the databases include all months of 2012 data reported as of April 1, 2013 (37). FTA also receives State Safety Oversight (SSO) agency annual reports for each state that contain similar data but differ due to slightly different thresholds or from the availability of information on an event prior to submission. The Safety & Security Time Series Read-Me material states that the “SSO Annual Reports are used to provide probable cause data for each reported incident; and to provide additional insight into the nature and consequences of the reported incidents” (37). 22

Federal Railroad Administration – Office of Safety Analysis FRA’s accident/incident reporting requirements, found in 49 CFR Part 225, are currently issued under the dual statutory authority of the Accident Reports Act of 1910 and the Federal Safety Act of 1970 (38). The three primary groups of reportable accidents/incidents include highway- rail grade crossing (Form FRA F 6180.57); rail equipment (Form FRA F 6180.54); and death, injury, or occupational illness (Form FRA F 6180.55a). Some situations require multiple forms to be utilized, such as a highway-rail grade crossing collision resulting in reportable injuries (6180.57 and 6180.55a). According to the FRA Guide for Preparing Accident/Incident Reports in reference to Form F 6180.55a – Railroad Injury and Illness Summary (Continuation Sheet), “a report must be made for each fatality and each injury that requires medical treatment beyond first aid, results in loss of consciousness, or meets the definition of significant injury, that is discernibly caused by an event or exposure arising from the operation of the railroad. There is a general presumption that any death or injury that occurs on a railroad’s premises, more likely than not, is related to the operation of the railroad.” FRA uses a classification system for affected persons, with two of the classifications related to pedestrian activity on railroad property. These two categories are defined below, along with a listing of the remaining categories grouped as Other Categories for this analysis. The classifications of non-worker persons include the following definitions: • Non-trespassers—on railroad property – persons lawfully on that part of railroad property that is used in railroad operation (other than those herein defined as employees, passenger, trespassers, volunteers, or contractor employees), and persons adjacent to railroad premises when they are injured as the result of the operation of a railroad. This class also includes other persons on vessels or buses, whose use arises from the operation of a railroad. • Trespassers – persons who are on the part of railroad property used in railroad operation and whose presence in prohibited, forbidden, or unlawful. A person on a highway-rail grade crossing should not be classified as a trespasser unless: a) the crossing is protected by gates or other similar barriers, which were closed when the person went on the crossing, or b) the person attempted to pass over, under, or between cars or locomotives of a consist occupying the crossing. A person or vehicle that enters the crossing without a physical barrier (e.g., gates in a lowered position) is not classified as a trespasser, even when the highway-rail grade crossing lights are activated or other warning systems are functioning. The person would be classified as a non-trespasser. • Other Categories – The classifications combined in this category include Worker on Duty – Employee; Employee Not on Duty; Worker on Duty – Contractor; Contractor – Other; Passengers on Trains; and Non-Trespasser – Off Railroad Property. For Form FRA F 6180.57 – Highway-Rail Grade Crossing Accident/Incident Report, the guide indicates “any impact, regardless of severity, between railroad on-track equipment and a highway user at a highway-rail grade crossing site, is to be reported.” Highway users include automobiles, buses, trucks, motorcycles, bicycles, farm vehicles, pedestrians, or other mode of surface transportation motorized and un-motorized. The term highway-rail grade crossing is defined as: 23

1. A location where a public highway, road, or street, or a private roadway, including associated sidewalks, crosses one or more railroad tracks at grade. 2. A location where a pathway explicitly authorized by a public authority or a railroad carrier that is dedicated for the use of non-vehicular traffic, including pedestrians, bicyclists, and others, that is not associated with a public highway, road, or street, or a private roadway, crosses one or more railroad tracks at grade. The FRA Office of Safety Analysis maintains a publicly available website (safetydata.fra.dot.gov) that contains pre-developed queries and full databases for download. The downloadable online databases available were current through December 31, 2012, as of March 24, 2013, and include: • Highway Rail Accidents (Form F 6180.57). • Railroad Casualties (Form F 6180.55a). • Operational Data (Form F 6180.55). The Highway Rail Accident database maintains over 100 fields of data, while the Railroad Casualties database maintains 50 fields that can be utilized for evaluation. Each event has a unique identifier, which allows for cross-referencing between the two databases. The Highway Rail Accident database has one record per event, while the Railroad Casualties database has a record for each person injured or killed during the event. For the purpose of understanding the event in more detail, one of the most valuable fields is the narrative provided in the accident/incident report. DATABASE ANALYSIS This section provides analysis of the most current FTA, NTD, and FRA databases, along with data analysis results documented in recent studies. Light Rail and Streetcar As indicated above, the NTD Safety and Security data lag approximately 90 days behind. Therefore, the available data are through December 2012 for reported data through April 1, 2013. Table 1 and Figure 1 present the pedestrian-specific safety data included in the NTD for 2008 to 2012. Beginning in 2012, the data provide segregation of the light-rail designations into light rail and streetcar. Table 1 contains the total combined light rail-streetcar fatalities and injuries for 2008 to 2011, and the separate light rail and streetcar fatalities and injuries for 2012. The table only contains the pedestrian categories and excludes other categories, such as Bicyclists, Trespassers, or Suicides. Approximately 41 percent (64 out of 156) of the total fatalities involving pedestrian-light rail or streetcar transit rail vehicles between 2008 and 2012 were pedestrians, according to Table 1. However, pedestrian injuries for that time period only accounted for approximately 4 percent (179 out of 4,880) of all injuries. The percentage of each pedestrian category for fatalities and injuries is presented in Figure 1. The top pedestrian categories for both fatalities and injuries compared to other pedestrian categories were Pedestrians Crossing Tracks and Pedestrian in Crossing. 24

Table 1. Pedestrian fatalities and injuries reported by transit agencies operating light rail and streetcar transit systems, 2008–2012. Year 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 Total Mode LR & SR Combined LR SR Fatalities Total Pedestrian Fatalities 7 18 9 13 17 0 64 • Pedestrian in Crossing 3 5 2 6 3 0 19 • Pedestrian Not in Crossing 2 4 1 1 1 0 9 • Pedestrian Crossing Tracks 1 4 4 4 7 0 20 • Pedestrian Walking Along Tracks 1 5 2 2 6 0 16 Total Non-Pedestrian Fatalities 10 16 15 23 28 0 92 Total All Fatalities 17 34 24 36 45 0 156 Injuries Total Pedestrian Injuries 36 31 35 39 36 2 179 • Pedestrian in Crossing 15 9 12 12 10 0 58 • Pedestrian Not in Crossing 3 6 6 8 5 0 28 • Pedestrian Crossing Tracks 12 9 10 15 15 2 63 • Pedestrian Walking Along Tracks 6 8 7 4 6 0 31 Total Non-Pedestrian Injuries 980 1,046 890 929 808 48 4,701 Total All Injuries 1,016 1,077 925 968 844 50 4,880 Fatalities Injuries Figure 1. Percentage of total 5-year pedestrian fatalities and injuries. Several mode definition adjustments were made as part of the analysis in order to match the system designations listed by APTA and presented earlier in this document. These adjustments include: 25

• Little Rock, AR (River Rail Streetcar): from Light Rail (LR) to Streetcar (SR). • Newark, NJ (Newark Light Rail): from Hybrid Rail (YR) to LR. • Oceanside, CA (NCTD Sprinter): from YR to LR. • Philadelphia, PA (SEPTA Light Rail): from SR to LR. • San Francisco, MUNI: from Cable Car (CC) to SR. Hybrid rail is defined as a rail system primarily operating routes on the national system of railroads, but not operating with the characteristics of commuter rail. The service typically operates light rail-type vehicles. Other hybrid rail designated systems, such as in Austin, TX (Capital MetroRail), are not included in the safety incident data because safety oversight for these transit agencies falls under FRA (37). Several recent studies examined pedestrian safety at light transit rail systems. In TCRP Web- Only Document 42, the authors characterized the findings of previous TCRP reports. In the review of TCRP Report 17, it is stated that “accidents between pedestrians and LRVs are the least common type of LRT-related accident” (12). Both TCRP 17 and TCRP 69 indicate that although crashes between pedestrians and LRVs are not common, the consequences are often severe, according to TCRP Web-Only Document 42. TCRP Web-Only Document 42 contains selected appendices of TCRP Report 137 Improving Pedestrian and Motorist Safety Along Light Rail Alignments. The project team for TCRP Report 137 performed an extensive evaluation of the available LRT safety data from local transit agencies, SSOs, and the NTD. The analysis of the NTD for the years 2002 to 2007 discovered that “the risk of fatality compared to injury is much higher for collisions between LRT vehicles and pedestrians (79.4 percent of the 63 fatal collisions involved a pedestrian and 24.8 percent of all LRT collisions involving a pedestrian were fatal)” (5). This characteristic is demonstrated in the analysis of provided local agency data, with collisions with pedestrians accounting for 75 percent of the fatalities and 33 percent of the injuries. The FTA 2009 Rail Safety Statistics Report provides analysis of safety data reported by SSO agencies and transit rail agencies for the years 2003 to 2008. The pedestrian-related findings in this analysis showed that 39 of the 382 public fatalities were pedestrians involved in collisions and that pedestrian actions caused 61 percent of light rail collision public fatalities (39). Commuter Railroads FTA, in collaboration with FRA, performed a safety analysis of the US commuter railroads. The November 2006 Commuter Rail Safety Study set out to identify the most frequent, highest risk causes of commuter rail accidents. It utilized the data from FRA’s Office of Safety Analysis forms discussed earlier, using in-depth reports from commuter railroads for the 79-month study period between January 1, 2000, and July 31, 2006, and summary data for the 10-year period between January 1, 1996, and December 31, 2005 (40). The study included the 18 commuter railroads receiving FTA funding, plus the Alaska Railroad. The Commuter Rail Safety Study provides an important note related to pedestrian collisions with commuter trains within FRA databases. It states within the definition of a trespasser that “a 26

person on a highway-rail crossing is not classified as a trespasser unless the crossing is protected by gates, or other similar barriers that were closed when the person went on the crossing” (40). If the crossing has no physical barrier, such as only flashing lights, then the person would be classified as a non-trespasser. Some of the pertinent findings for the 10-year period between 1996 and 2005 include a decline of 22 percent in the total number of annual accidents and incidents, despite a stated increase of the number of annual passenger transport by 50 percent and increase of the number of annual passenger miles of service by 40 percent. The more in-depth 79-month period between January 1, 2000, and July 31, 2006, found that fatalities totaled 526 with Type of Person listed as 26 (5 percent) non-trespassers on railroad property and 463 (88 percent) trespassers. As an Event, highway-rail collision/impact fatalities were categorized as 132 trespassers and 12 non-trespassers on railroad property, out of 145 total highway-rail collision/impact fatalities. The only other fatality was a passenger on the train. Over the 79-month period, injuries totaled 11,900 with the Type of Person listed as 1,038 (11 percent) non-trespassers on railroad property and 294 (2 percent) trespassers. As an Event, highway-rail collision/impact injuries were categorized as 127 trespassers and 33 non-trespassers on railroad property, out of 259 total highway-rail collision/impact injuries. The FRA 2012 Operational Data database contains 810 different railroad reporting marks, with 185 railroad reporting marks containing passenger movements. These include the 24 US commuter rail systems, Amtrak, Alaska Railroad, and some light rail systems. The remaining entities, not included in this analysis, are tourism trains or railroads that moved some sort of passenger excursion train during the year. Utilizing the analysis format undertaken by the Commuter Rail Safety Study, Table 2 contains commuter rail fatality and injury-related data analyses for the latest 5-year period. Table 2 shows a total of 414 fatalities and 10,233 injuries occurred between 2008 and 2012. Trespassers made up 86 percent of the fatalities but only 3 percent of the total injuries, when compared to the other types of people involved. A review of the Events listed as highway-rail collisions/impacts finds that for the 5-year period, a total of 85 fatalities and 199 injuries were captured in the data. The Type of Person listed as trespasser resulted in 74 fatalities and 93 injuries; while the Type of Person listed as non- trespasser on railroad property resulted in 11 fatalities and 15 injuries. 27

Table 2. Commuter rail fatalities and injuries by type of person. Year 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 Total % of Total Type of Person Fatalities Non-Trespasser on Railroad Property 4 0 3 5 7 19 5% Trespasser 75 63 10 64 84 356 86% Other Categories 29 3 2 3 2 39 9% Total All Fatalities 108 66 75 72 93 414 100% Injuries Non-Trespasser on Railroad Property 466 476 515 506 404 2,367 23% Trespasser 48 51 67 50 67 283 3% Other Categories 1,583 1,514 1,531 1,546 1,409 7,583 74% Total All Injuries 2,097 2,041 2,113 2,102 1,880 10,233 100% One issue with FRA data is that no one or two variables can be used to capture the entire population of pedestrian-train collisions at dedicated crossing locations. Several combinations of variables within FRA databases broadly describe the scenarios experienced during those collision types. One option to ascertain more detailed information from FRA data is to examine the narratives included for each record, where populated. In general, the descriptions provide an explanation from the railroad’s perspective of the details related to the incident. Below are several paraphrased sample narratives related to pedestrian collisions with commuter trains found in FRA databases: • Location – grade crossing; Circumstance – pedestrian walks around gate arms; Type of Person – trespasser. The victim attempted to cross over the tracks at crossing after the gates lowered to catch up with his wife who was on the westbound platform. He was struck by eastbound train. Collision was fatal. • Location – sidewalk at other rail crossing in passenger terminal; Circumstance – distracted pedestrian; Type of Person – non-trespasser on railroad property. A pedestrian using their cell phone failed to yield at crosswalk to train entering the station and was struck by train. Collision was non-fatal. • Location – grade crossing; Circumstance – distracted pedestrian; Type of Person – trespasser. A 14-year-old male wearing headphones walked around activated gates and was struck by the train. Collision was fatal. • Location – grade crossing; Circumstance – person in wheelchair disregarded gates; Type of Person – trespasser. Subject in motorized wheelchair attempted to cross the tracks while the gates were down and was struck by the train. Collision was non-fatal. 28