Rail crossing and bridge collision avoidance technology previewed

LSM’s latest patented technologies are aimed at eliminating truck collisions with overhead bridges and trains at level crossings. The company is seeking government grant assistance to produce these products locally, but so far, this grant effort has been unsuccessful.

We reported on the current situation with rail level crossings, following sharp focus on this issue, at the recent ATA Trucking Australia 24 conference.

LSM’s TrainSense is said to provide advantages over historic mitigation controls, by targeting the primary cause of impacts: human behaviour and error. It is a stand-alone mitigation device, with no ongoing subscription or telemetry costs and operates via the GPS satellite network, which is reliable and accurate.

Once the vehicle is moving, TrainSense compares stored railway level crossing GPS coordinates in the device against the vehicle’s GPS position. If the vehicle fails to reduce speed at a level crossing the device can be programmed to activate emergency braking, even if the driver ignores any AEB alerts.

LSM’s BridgeSense functions in much the same way, reacting to stored bridge clearance height data and the vehicle’s height. It can be reprogrammed by the driver with current operating height and can also trigger warnings and braking if a tipper body or crane haven’t been stowed correctly.

LSM’s research confirmed that human behaviour and errors significantly impact vehicle driver safety, underlining the need for effective solutions to enhance mitigation efforts.

“These human factors present significant challenges that existing mitigation controls are unable to fully address,” said LSM’s Peter Woodford.

LSM said that some common behavioural and human error issues exhibited by drivers included: drivers forgetting to enter or update routing information, new drivers’ lack of route familiarity, distractions caused by radio communications and phones, eating and drinking or even listening to music, fatigue and simple inattention.

In addition, rail crossing and low bridge signage can sometimes be obscured by untrimmed vegetation, or destroyed by accident or fire.

Given LSM Technologies’ 20-year track record in heavy vehicle, mining and construction equipment safety initiatives, we were surprised to learn that the company’s recent grant application was denied, particularly in view of Anthony Albanese’s plans for a Future Made in Australia Act, proposing taxpayer-funded incentives to advance local manufacturing and clean energy industries.

“We sought funding through the Australian 2024 Level Crossing Grant Safety Research-Innovation Grant,” said Peter Woodford.

“Despite the technical, commercial and safety advantages of our proposed solutions, our application was unfortunately not successful.

“However, we were successful in obtaining support letters from Todd Hacking, CEO of the HVIA and Heather Neil, CEO of the Australian TrackSafe Foundation.

“We have now reached out to various ministers, rail operators and regulators requesting letters of support, to enable us to resubmit our grant application,” said Mr Woodford.

Hopefully, LSM will soon get funding so this valuable piece of safety equipment will go into local production and start saving lives on our roads.

We'll keep you up to date with developments.