7th edition of the International Level Crossing Awareness Day (ILCAD) will be officially launched in Istanbul, Turkey on 3 June 2015 .
ILCAD 2014: On 3 June 2014 the Portuguese Railway Manager REFER, UIC and key partners celebrated the 6th International Level Crossing Awareness Day (ILCAD) focusing on educational measures and the promotion of safe behaviour at and around level crossings. This edition once again brought together over 43 countries and concentrated its message on professional drivers.Almost 100 persons participated in the international press conference and round table discussion emphasising the importance of road safety at level crossings.
For more information please read/ http://uic.org/com/uic-e-news/403. Please also visit https://www.facebook.com/ilcad ; http://twitter.com/#!/ilcad
Video for ILCAD 2014 : “Saving Lives at Level Crossings – A price too high to pay”
- Summary of the film:
There are millions of near misses and thousands deaths estimated on level crossings around the world every year. But because the numbers are relatively low compared to accidents on the roads, not enough priority is given by policy makers to improving safety.
The International Union of Railways (UIC), road sector organisations, European Institutions and the UN-ECE are committed to raising awareness about the risks, improving technology and changing behavior. This film has been co-financed by UNECE, the Federal Office of Transport of the Swiss Confederation (FOT) and the International Union of Railways (UIC). This film is a documentary aimed at making the public and decision makers aware of the dangers at level crossings to better tackle this particular safety issue and risky interface to decrease the number of accidents and casualties around the world.
Video of a near miss between a lorry and a train at a level crossing in the Czech Republic
http://video.idnes.cz/?idvideo=V121011_093355_tv-zpravy_krr
Since 2009 the International Level Crossing Awareness Day (ILCAD) campaign has been spearheaded by the International Union of Railways (UIC) with the support of the railway community around the world. A growing number of road sector organizations, the European Commission and the United Nations - Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) are also involved in raising awareness of the risks at level crossings in order to change road users’ and pedestrians’ behaviour to “act safely at level crossings”.
This campaign proceeds from an uncomfortable statistic: too many people die or are injured in accidents at level crossings. Even if according to European statistics level crossing accidents account for only 1% of road deaths they comprise 28% of all rail fatalities. Statistics show also that the majority of these are due to misuse by motorists and pedestrians but the popular misconception is that these incidents are a railway problem. Conferences on the issue show that the only really effective way to decrease the number of accidents, short of closing all level crossings, is Educating people, highlighting the risks and making them aware of the potential consequences if they do not follow the simple rules of the road. Finally when Education fails or is not sufficient the next step is to take Enforcement measures.
The 6th edition of ILCAD took place on 3 June 2014 again in many countries with bigger or smaller campaigns. The 2014 press conference together with a round table on level crossing safety with experts from different sectors, side events were hosted by REFER, the railway infrastructure manager in Lisbon, Portugal. The public targeted in 2014 was professional drivers (of school buses, coaches, taxis, minivans, tractors, trucks, heavy haul trucks, emergency vehicles...).
The 7th edition will take place on 3rd June 2015. Save the date!
You may join free of charge as all activity is on a purely collaborative basis and help the railway community to reduce this level of operational risk that we face at the interface with the road sector.
For more information on the past campaigns: http://www.ilcad.org
or contact Isabelle Fonverne, UIC: fonverne at uic.org