Page 58 - Operation Lifesaver Estonia Annual Report 2011

Railway Safety in Estonia - 56 - Annual Report 2011
PUBLIC EVENTS
Helen Sramek, President, Operation Lifesaver inc. (OLI)
in the USA, the mother company of OL and a non-
profit organisation founded in 1972. Their activities
are related to level crossing and trespassing issues:
25% of all accidents are caused by professional drivers.
Since 1972 the number of collisions has declined by
84%. They reached 3 million people in 2010: drivers,
law enforcement people and students. Their targets:
distracted drivers, children and young people. They
also organise E-learning with simulators in cabins for
professional drivers (mainly truck drivers).
Dan Di Tota, National Director of Operation Lifesaver
(OL), Canada. Since 1981 Canada has adopted a bilingual
version of OL. Operation Lifesaver is a partnership
initiative of the Railway Association of Canada and
Transport Canada and works in cooperation with the
rail industry, government, police, unions, and many
public organisations and community groups. Canada
counts 20,000 public level crossings and 20,000 private
ones. 54% of incidents at level crossings occur due to
trespassing.
Viktor Tšerkassov, Head of Labour Protection, Industrial
Safety and Environmental Monitoring Department at the
Russian Railways said they are interested in the accidents
taking place between or at stations, not at level crossings.
These accidents have decreased by 30% between 2004
and 2010 and occur mainly in suburban areas.
Martina Pavlikova, on behalf of Jan Nastisn, ZSR Slovakia,
presented their network and the number of level
crossings in Slovakia and talked about the importance of
human factors and education.
Michael Calé, Traffic Psychologist at Israeli Railways,
introduced the issue of the boring side of road traffic
signs. They are so boring that people do not pay attention
any more. Their role is to make them aware of new signs
and encourage them to be more cautious, for example to
take notice of new signs on the ground signalling a level
crossing is approaching.
Vassiliki Danelli-Mylonas President of the Hellenic
Road Safety Institute, and John Lawlor, Chief of the
Irish Contingent of Scouts, introduced the Irish safety
organisation R.S.I. that has been created to raise
awareness and sensitivity among citizens, and most
importantly to rally key public and private organisations
to act for road safety. Since 2007 they have been making
road safety awareness campaigns (TV, Radio, publications
and posters on level crossings). They participated
in ELCAD 2009 and ILCAD 2010 in cooperation with
TRAINOSE and will continue in 2011. Since death through
road injury is the most significant killer of young people
globally between the ages of 5 to 29 years (source WHO
2008), R.S.I. has formed a partnership with the Scouts