Summary

Serious injury involving a train

For the 5-year period from 2002–03 to 2006–07, 910 persons were seriously injured in Australia due to transport accidents involving a train, an average of 182 per year.

Victoria (37.1%), New South Wales (34.3%) and Queensland (17.5%) accounted for almost 90% of serious injury cases due to a transport injury involving a train.

Age-standardised rates of serious injury due to transport accidents involving a train declined by an annual average of 4.6% [95%CI: 2.0%, 7.1%] over the 7-year period from 2000–01 to 2006–07.

Approximately one rail user was seriously injured per 100 million passenger kilometres travelled in 2006–07. The risk of serious injury, based on kilometres travelled, is more than 10 times as high for passengers travelling by car compared with passengers travelling by rail.

On a population basis, age-standardised serious injury rates tended to be higher for those aged 70 years and over. This tendency was observed among both sexes.

For the period from 2002–03 to 2006–07, rail users made up two-thirds (66.0%) of all serious injury cases due to transport accidents involving a train, with the most common circumstance of injury being injury while boarding or alighting from a train (25.1% of all serious injury cases). Pedestrians injured in a collision with a train (14.8%) and car occupants injured in a collision with a train (12.5% of all serious injury cases) accounted for most of the non-rail user cases.

The mean length of stay in hospital for a transport accident involving a train was 8.1 days, which was more than twice the mean length of stay for all hospitalisations involving non rail-related injuries (4.0 days).

Serious injury due to level crossing accidents

For the period from 2002–03 to 2006–07, 253 persons were seriously injured in Australia due to a level crossing accident, an average of 51 per year.

Victoria accounted for over half (53.0%) of level crossing-related serious injury cases, followed by Queensland (19.0%), South Australia (12.6%) and New South Wales (10.7%).

Rates of serious injury remained stable over the 5-year period ranging from 0.21 serious injury cases per 100,000 population in 2005–06 to 0.33 serious injury cases per 100,000 population in 2001–02.

Serious injury rates, on an age-specific basis, were highest among young adults (20–24 years).

The most common circumstances of injury involved car occupants injured in a collision with a train (42.3%) and pedestrians injured in a collision with a train (29.6%).

The mean length of stay in hospital for a level crossing accident was 11.9 days, which was almost 3 times the mean length of stay for all hospitalisations involving non rail-related injuries (4.0 days).