No sympathy for anyone that causes an accident at any rail crossing. The crossings are clearly marked & have flashing lights. If you try to beat 90 tonnes of Deisel & another 200 tonnes of wagons across a level crossing you deserve everything you get. (which is dead) I just feel sorry for the innocent collateral damage. Those people injured should sue the person who caused the accidents' estate.

26 years in the railways and I've lost a few good mates to these idiots.

Interesting topic. As it happens, I drive far too many kilometers, mostly on Queensland inland roads that vary in quality from OK to barely formed track - although I'm also extremely familiar with the "highway" thay call Bruce (which, now that I think of it, also qualifies for that description). I also live right next to a formerly major railway line that now carries around 4 trains a year, and considerably more QR maintenance vehicles. Many of our back roads cross the track, which I therefore also cross frequently.

I think that most comments so far all have merit. Hasbeen is correct to point out that people are often unused to seeing trains in rural and regional areas these days. However, I suspect that once that 'Peak Oil' and climate change start to really bite, we'll be seeing relatively more rail traffic and less cars and trucks on the road.

Having said that, the reason Ludwig's suggestion of having far more prominent signage set further back makes good sense (as does rehctub's suggestion of rumble strips) is because there are so many inattentive idiots driving on our roads. In every 600 km round trip I make to Brisbane I invariably see some fool narrowly escape death. I eschew the Ipswich Motorway in favour of the still pretty drive via the Moggill Ferry, as much for the reduced exposure to idiocy and road rage as for the view.

Which is why Jayb is also right. I have seen a truck race a train to a crossing between Bowen and Townsville and narrowly make it - and subsequently noticed that crossing as the site for several bad collisions until it was recently replaced with an overpass. People driving cars and trucks often take stupid risks, sometimes with horrific consequences.

“I think one of the problems is the low number of trains on many routes, these days. People get used to never seeing a train, on the tracks, or at crossings, & stop expecting them.”

Yes Hasbeen, I think this is part of the problem at crossings without lights. Some drivers think that there is extremely little chance of a train coming along right at the moment that they are crossing and consequently fail to look properly…especially in sugarcane-growing areas, along much of the Queensland coast, where there are rail networks that are only used for a small part of the year, but have just the same sort of signs as other rail crossings, and don’t have the signs covered up when they are not in use.

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Rehctub, nice one. Audible lines seem like a very good idea.

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Jayb, you seem to be assuming that all accidents are caused by reckless drivers that try to beat the train through the crossing.

I think that this is an extremely minor factor. Thus I can't see that boom gates would help much at all. Most drivers respect flashing level crossing lights to just the same extent as they do for traffic lights, which is almost 100% respect from the whole community.

Not all crossings have flashing lights. The majority don’t. The latest fatality at Mundoo near Innisfail occurred at a crossing without lights. http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,27574,24862136-3102,00.html

Blame the Railway for rail crossing accidents. Hell, why not?

Failure to take responsibility for your own actions is how most people deal with problems they themselves have caused. The trend in todays Society is for people to blame everybody else for their own stupidity, then sue.

Yes Jayb, I blame the Railways, and Departments of Transport and local, state and national governments for the problems, along with poor drivers. You bet I do. They all need to carry part of the responsibility for the ongoing carnage.

The authorities quite frankly deserve condemnation for not dealing with this issue decisively, after decades of horrific accidents, especially when the solution….or a very larger part of the solution….is so damn simple, as I outlined in my first post.

Obviously we can’t just rely on people to take responsibility for their own actions. We wouldn’t have any safety measures on our roads or any road rules, or any laws at all, if we did that.

Rumble strips are a good idea, except that they don't necessarily force drivers to drive slower.

Could undulations be built into the road with the right wavelength and height which force drivers to drive slower - a kind of set of elongated speed humps? It is this type of road surface that forces drivers to slow down on dirt roads. Signs would also be needed to alert drivers.