Railway signals passed at danger. Situational and personal factors underlying stop signal abuse

Based upon a systematic registration of cases of unauthorised passing through signals at danger (SPD cases) during the period 1 January 1983 to 1 January 1985, the contribution of situational and personal factors to the occurrence of this kind of safety error was studied. Exposural deviances were taken into account by presenting the relevant exposural details as well as the SPD frequencies. To study the effect of personal factors, the group of drivers involved was compared with an individually matched control group. Data analysis indicated that SPD cases tended to be fairly evenly dispersed over the months of the year. The distribution of incidents throughout the days of the week corresponded rather closely to the numbers of train driver shifts. Neither technical nor mechanical faults nor weather nor visibility conditions seemed to be significant contributory factors. SPD cases were relatively many during the morning hours (midnight till 6 am and 8 am till noon) and at the start of duty periods. At a number of (black) spots two or more cases were recorded accounting for a relatively high percentage of all cases. The most frequently mentioned hazard was that of the signal being situated behind a bend. About 90% of the cases took place at or near stations and most were with arriving trains. The direct cause of an SPD case often seemed to be that a signal was overlooked or not anticipated. Personal factors (age, time on duty, length of service or track and rolling-stock experience) did not seem to be important variables. However, it was proven that previous incidents, worse performance with multiple choice reaction tests, and less job satisfaction are predictive of a future SPD case. In this study the consequences of SPD cases were not as serious as they could be. Most damage was to points (forced open). Other consequences include level crossings not closed and a very small number of crashes. There were no fatalities and only one person was injured as a result of stop signal abusage.