Rail-highway crossing safety: fatal crash and demographic descriptors

This report was prepared as part of the June 1994 Departmental Rail-Highway Crossing Safety Action Plan. Initiative VB (Data and Research -- Demographics) called for a study describing the circumstances under which fatal rail crossing crashes occur and characteristics of the drivers involved in such crashes. This report compares fatal motor vehicle rail crossing crashes with fatal crashes occurring at intersections and all fatal crashes. Data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's (NHTSA's) Fatal Accident Reporting System, supplemented with information from Claritas, a commercially available geodemographic database, were used to provide the descriptive statistics.