The railway accidents on the level crossings in Turkey and suggestions and regulations to reduce them

The especially insisted subjects about the modernization works on the national railway network which has a past of 157 years and started in 23th September 1856 in Turkey: the expansion of railway network, making the railway management more efficient for the passengers and the freight trains, increasing the railway cruise speed and increasing the safety of railway transport as a result of these developments. The railways are preferred transportation type because of its reliability with regard to safety in the world. Nevertheless, there are some parts on the railway transportation lines with high accident risk. The level crossing zones are the parts that accidents most occur on the railways. In this work, the information has been given about the accidents on the level crossing zones from the past to present and accident preventing techniques/technologies, the conditions in which the conventionally used methods are successful or inadequate have been analyzed, the new technologies related with the subject have been introduced and the applicability of these precautions and technologies for the railway network of our country has been discussed.