Abstract Human factors are major causes of train accidents in the United States. Understanding the safety risk of these accidents can provide insights into safety evaluation and improvement. This paper focuses on analyzing the train derailments and collisions due to human factors using 2000–2016 accident data on mainlines from the US Federal Railroad Administration. This research methodology involves three main sections. First, we analyze the statistical trend of annual accident rates by accident type and year. Based on the cause-specific distribution of accident frequency, the major causes are determined for each common accident type such as derailments and collisions. Next, we calculate accident severity (e.g., derailed cars, casualties) due to each specific human-factor accident cause. Finally, we compute annual accident risk and cause-specific accident risk using mean and alternative risk measures. The detailed accident data analysis approach herein can also be adapted to other types of train accidents, in support of decisions for rail safety improvement. The analysis of human-factor-caused train accidents can provide key information for the development and evaluation of potential safety improvement strategies.

Zhipeng Zhang

Tejashree Turla

Category	Quartile
工程技术	3
工程技术, 交通运输	4

Analysis of human-factor-caused freight train accidents in the United States

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