The best low-cost alternative to mitigate accidents at railway crossings-by bernard Fernando
At the outset, the writer wishes to quote below excerpts from a recent news item in the Press on the above subject.
“Sri Lanka’s railway system faces mounting safety and operational challenges, with more than 400 railway level crossings remaining unsafe and an ageing fleet increasingly prone to failure, according to official data.
Between 2020 and 2024, at least 385 accidents were reported at railway level crossings, resulting in 37 deaths and 105 injuries. Investigations attributed many of these incidents to unsafe crossings and weak enforcement of safety measures. Out of more than 400 level crossings identified as unsafe, 185 were private, while 1,177 fell under the responsibility of the Railway Department. Of these, only 300 were fitted with railway gates and 438 with signaling systems. The remaining 439 crossings, including around 200 manually operated gates, were categorised as unsafe.
Despite the risks, comprehensive remedial action had yet to be taken. The Department of Railways said most of the unsafe crossings had now been marked as dangerous, with railway stations issuing warnings and installing speed limits and signage as temporary measures. However, the department acknowledged that urgent and permanent safety interventions were required to prevent further loss of life.”
Having proposed a simple, low cost and effective alternative to mitigate accidents at Railway crossings, through the Press from 2013 to 2023, the writer was informed by the Department of Railways that they have started constructing humps in consultation with the local authorities and the RDA where necessary.
Now, the writer wishes to quote relevant excerpts from one of his several articles that appeared in the press to update the authorities and the readers.
“Yet another tragedy has occurred, this time at Batuwatte again due to an unprotected railway crossing. Readers will recall that a simple, low cost and an effective proposal sent by me appeared in both Sinhala and English press under the above caption in the month of July 2013. Accordingly, if some action was taken to construct speed- breakers (humps) on either side of this particular railway crossing, this tragedy would surely have been prevented. It is sad and unfortunate that the authorities concerned turn a blind eye to public opinion despite the fact that some readers have responded to the press endorsing my proposal.
Sometime ago, the Ministry of Higher Education (obviously to draw the attention of the academia) launched a competition to attract low –cost, effective proposals to solve this Railway crossings problem. So far no concrete action seems to have been taken towards this end except for short listing the competitors. (It indicated that the Ministry was obviously looking for highly technical solutions for reasons best known to them.)
In this regard it is pertinent to quote a villager from Wanwasala (where another tragedy occurred recently) who said “No one can rely on that bell. Sometimes when it rains heavily it rings continuously till someone fixes it. Vehicles with their shutters closed and the radio on, wouldn’t hear it on most occasions.” This clearly shows the inherent drawbacks of technical solutions as well as their inability to adequately warn the motorists who sometimes are really negligent as in the case of Batuwatte.
In the circumstances, the best option is not to rely fully on audio or visual warnings but to virtually force the motorists to either stop or slow down on seeing a progressively built road-breaker/Hump. Motorists in Sri Lanka are well used to slowing- down or stopping their vehicles at Humps and we have hardly witnessed accidents caused by them.
It is admitted that road-breakers are not feasible at all Railway crossings particularly at those places where sharp bends are encountered.”
The writer fervently hopes that the new Govt. will take prompt steps to install the proposed low-cost, quick to construct and effective road-breakers, (also known as ‘Sleeping Policemen’), painted in red colour and carrying the wording ‘Stop-Railway crossing’ in all 3 languages at the said unprotected railway crossings in order to prevent unfortunate accidents in the future.
Bernard Fernando,
Moratuwa
