Road-rail crossings where a train and motor vehicle crashed were compared with the next crossing in the direction from which the train traveled at the same time of day and day of week of the crash. The odds of a crash were much lower at crossings with automatically lowered gates (odds ratio = 0.11). Average road traffic was much higher at crash sites; the presence of automatic gates was unrelated to the volume of road traffic. Federally funded modifications of road-rail crossings have substantially reduced deaths at such sites. The program would be more cost effective, however, if criteria for highest risk sites were applied more systematically, and funds were apportioned among the States according to their relative proportions of the problem.
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