Twenty-three commuter and inter-city passenger train

accidents, which occurred over the past twenty years, have been

analyzed. The analysis has assessed the potential effectiveness

of various injury mitigation strategies. The strategies with the

greatest potential to increase passenger safety are interior

occupant protection, coupler integrity, end structure integrity,

side structure integrity, and glazing system integrity. We

recommend that these strategies be researched further.

Three types of accidents were analyzed: train-to-train

collisions, derailments, and grade-crossing collisions. Train-totrain

collisions include the commuter train-freight train collision

in Chatsworth, California on September 12, 2008. In Chatsworth

a commuter train collided with a freight train at a closing speed

of ~80 mph, fatally injuring twenty-five people and injuring

more than 100 others. Derailments include the commuter train

derailment in Spuyten Duyvil, New York on December 1, 2013,

fatally injuring four people and injuring more than fifty others.

Grade-crossing accidents include the commuter-SUV collision

in Valhalla, New York on February 3, 2015, which resulted in six

fatally injured people, including the SUV driver, and thirteen

severely injured people.

Four categories of mitigation strategies were considered:

train crashworthiness, wayside structure crashworthiness, fire

safety, and emergency preparedness. Within each of these

categories are equipment features, which may potentially be

modified to further mitigate injuries. The features are simple

noun phrases, e.g., “floor strength,” implying that the floor

strength should be increased. Train crashworthiness includes

features such as end strength, floor strength, coupler separation,

and numerous others. Wayside structure crashworthiness

includes features such as frangible catenary poles and third rail

end caps. Fire safety includes train interior and train exterior

features for minimizing the potential for fire and for reducing the

rate at which fire might spread. Emergency preparedness

includes features for emergency egress, access, lighting, signage,

and on-board equipment, such as fire extinguishers.

Overall, rail passenger travel has a high level of safety, and

passenger train accidents are rare events. The numbers are low

for expected casualties per passenger-mile and casualties per

passenger-trip. A high level of safety, however, does not mean

efforts to improve it should cease. But it does mean that crashes

are rare events. Rare events in complex systems are notoriously

difficult to analyze with confidence. There are too few accidents

to provide the data needed for even a moderate degree of

mathematical confidence in statistical analysis. Analyses of

similar data in medical and scientific fields have been shown to

be prone to the biases of the researchers, sometimes in subtle and

difficult-to-detect ways. As a means of coping with the sparse

data and potential biases, the goal has been to evaluate the

accidents transparently and comprehensively. This approach

allows a wide audience to understand how injuries and fatalities

occur in passenger train accidents and, most importantly, allows

us to prioritize mitigation strategies for research.