I know that area intimately Ludwig. I was raised in the lower Burdekin & lived in Townsville until recently. The two bad crossings in the Burdekin area are, one at Brandon No excuse for hitting this one. Yet there are prangs there all the time. The other is just over the bridge on the right going into Home Hill. Not excuse for hitting that one either. I was in the Railways Breakdown Gang for many years & attended many breakdowns on those two. The big one for me was when the Diesel hit the Semi at the Bolhe. I lost a good mate there. I lifted the Diesel off him. The Diesel flipped end for end. The Semi driver was on the phone. I found the phone. the only part of the Semi that wasn't wrecked. Oh! he was talking to another mate of mine at the time. There was no excuse for this accident either. There were plenty of warning signs & lights along that part of the Bruce Highway coming up to the the side gate of the RAAF Base.

I do agree with Rumble strips though & signs further back. I do also think that complacency has a lot to do with these accidents. The same people cross these lines at the same time every day. Thumb in bum. Mind in netural. No excuse.

Ludwig,

The point you made earlier about forgetting about multimillion dollar overpasses could be the solution. Instead of importing US technology and habits, we could be developing our own solutions. If foregoing a hundred overpasses could be used to pay for a few thousand much safer level crossings through better signage and smarter design, this would be a better outcome.

Maybe the government through an engineering peak body could set up a competition for all civil engineers to enter the best design for a level crossing. Give decent prize money to the best idea that is able to be implemented.

Jayb, last week the crossing at Home Hill just before the Burdekin Bridge was one of several that I found myself almost on top of before it registered in my head. You come around a curve and you’re on it.

When there’s a lot of traffic, when the warning signs are just a couple more signs in amongst heaps of others, when there’s a lot of ‘stuff’ happening around you, or when you are a bit tired, it is all too easy for a level crossing to just not register in your consciousness.

Yes, complacency is an issue. But from personal experience I can’t blame drivers too much. I once would have for sure. But given that I’m as tuned into road safety as anyone could be and I still miss the warning signs for rail crossings, I have to conclude that it is just human nature that people do this, and that they shouldn’t be condemned for it

Safety measures should be in place to make sure that crossings DO register with drivers well before they get to them and that the complacency or absent-mindedness factor doesn’t cost people their lives.

Good comments RobP. Today I read in the Townsville Bulletin that 10 million $ is going to be spent on eight black-spot level crossings in north Queensland, as a result of the recent fatalities………including another one yesterday.

This seems absurd. More than a million $ per crossing, for eight of them, and presumably NOTHING for the other several hundred that also badly need safety upgrades!

Crikey, 10 million $ could put much more conspicuous signage at just about all of these crossings, and red flashing lights well back from the crossings for the ones that really need it.

Ahhh jeezuz.

Jayb, last week the crossing at Home Hill just before the Burdekin Bridge was one of several that I found myself almost on top of before it registered in my head. You come around a curve and you’re on it.

That crossing is a side line into the Mill, It's not the Main Line. It also runs parallel to the Highway & is clearly visable. The line is also clear ahead through to the Sugar filling building. If you hit any train on that line it's you own bloody fault. The crossing on the main line is a little further on, on the left. The road comes from Up River Road Home Hill. Also clear in every direction. No excuse.
The big accident in Ingham a few years ago. The guys in the Hilux were racing the train to the crossing. The driver was inbeded into the front of the Diesel. How do I know? I peeled the car off the front of the Diesel. We had to wait for the Coroner. No excuse.
It's natures way. Survival of the fittest. It gets rid of the idiots so they don't breed more idiots.
The prevelent view on life today by the Namby Pamby is,"I accept no responsibility. It's everybody elses fault if something bad happens to me." Well here's some bad news. "Bullexcreter and stiff excreter."
Am I hard? Well, you could say so, but I accept life for what it is, "brutal" & work around that. I don't expect that everyone should cater for MY complacency.

Jayb, what does it matter if it is a main line or a little side line? If there is anything more than the most minuscule chance of a driver not seeing it or registering it in their mind until the last moment, then there’s a major problem.

Why are school speed zone signs often much larger than other speed limit signs, with bright orange borders, and often accompanied with big bright strips painted on the road?

Not because people ignored the signs but because lots of people were just not seeing them when they were first introduced.

You might wonder how anyone could miss the slow speed zones in front of schools if they had normal signage. Well, they did and still do!

We need to exercise the same principle with level crossings – unmissable signage!

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