Reducing the harm in rail crashes : analysis of injury mechanisms and mitigation strategies

Details

• Alternative Title:
  Proceedings of the ASME IEEE ASCE 2016 Joint Rail Conference
• Creators:
  Wilson, Bruce ; Tyrell, David
• Corporate Creators:
  John A. Volpe National Transportation Systems Center (U.S.)
• Subject/TRT Terms:
  • Crashworthiness
  • Crash investigation
  • Railroad safety
  • Railcar structural components
  • Emergencies
  • Passenger cars
  • Intercity passenger cars
  • Commuter cars
  • Couplers
  • Crash energy management
• Publication/ Report Number:
  JRC2016-5811
• Resource Type:
  In Proceedings
• Geographical Coverage:
  United States
• Corporate Publisher:
  American Society of Mechanical Engineers
• Abstract:
  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.
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• Format:
  PDF
• Download URL:
  https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/12323/dot_12323_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 4.53 MB]
• Collection(s):
  Volpe Center
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha256:65030ff95df8ae9ccc436ed51cc13e49744079b2289c45b10312e8fee8cba919