Luas Safety Campaign

[Colm Moore]

http://garda.ie/Controller.aspx?Page=13455

Motorists – What’s the Harm?

An Garda SÃ*ochána and the Minister for Transport, Tourism & Sport Leo Varadkar, Luas operator Transdev, Railway Procurement Agency and are combining forces to appeal to motorists to stop breaking Red lights.

To show the public “What the Harm Is� the name associated with today’s awareness campaign, Luas has made CCTV footage available to view on- line.

www.luas.ie/ http://bit.ly/LMotorist2minVid https://www.youtube.com/user/officialluas

Statistics

To date this year, there have been 13 collisions with motorists and trams.

In 2013 there were 38 collisions between motorists and trams.

In 2012 there were 24 collisions between motorists and trams.



See below for more detailed information.



Luas is particularly concerned that the figures are on the increase. The trams are very much a part of Dublin’s transport infrastructure and this type of motorist behaviour is a worrying trend. “What’s the Harm� is an advertising campaign aimed at educating motorists that breaking Red lights and colliding with Luas may result in serious injury or kill someone.



You may be prosecuted by the GardaÃ* and lastly you affect the lives of thousands of commuters by putting an unnecessary and unwelcome delay on their journey.



While the majority of motorists drive safely and adhere to the law it is the minority who gamble when the lights turn Red or go through on the Red that we must target to protect the lives of commuters and pedestrians going about their day to day business.



Minister for Transport, Tourism & Sport Leo Varadkar said: “Breaking a red light is one of the most dangerous things any motorist can do, and driving through a red light at a Luas junction is both irresponsible and stupid. There have been 13 incidents between motorists and trams this year, and one loss of life. This new awareness campaign aims to prevent further incidents. Under a new pilot scheme starting later this year, GardaÃ* will be able to initiate prosecutions using CCTV footage of motorists who break red lights.â€�



Brian Brennan – Managing Director of Transdev said “Luas is a very safe system to travel on. Over 30.4m passenger journeys were made last year on the service and the trams covered over 4 million kilometres. Whilst it is important to assure customers how safe the system is to travel on we must now at the start of summer target gambling motorists. We must reduce the number of emergency brakes the trams are forced to make because of reckless motorist behaviour, we must reverse this trend so that we do not face a summer of further pain and suffering.�



Rory O’Connor, Acting CEO of the Railway Procurement Agency welcomed this campaign and all the related efforts of the various agencies involved. “While Luas remains an extremely safe system, 2013 saw a significant increase in the number of road traffic collisions, with the main contributing factor being motorists breaking red lights. RPA regards safety as its highest priority, and this campaign is aimed at those road users who are recklessly putting their own lives in danger.�



In addition to the awareness campaign other steps are being taken to change motorist behaviour.



An Garda SÃ*ochána has undertaken targeted patrols of Blackhall Place, Queen Street and Belgard Road (in South Dublin) in an effort to reduce this illegal and very dangerous driver behaviour.



In order to drive the message home to motorists about the potential consequences of breaking Red lights and the impact with the tram Transdev and Railway Procurement Agency have released CCTV footage which can be viewed on Luas Social Media pages;



www.youtube.com/user/officalluas



www.facebook.com/Luas



www.luas.ie

Notes about Luas



Safety Facts & Figures



Since Luas opened in 2004 there have been over 282.4 million Luas passenger journeys.
In 2013 there were 30.4 million Luas passenger journeys.



There are over 37km of Luas lines:
The Luas Red Line is 20.8 km’s long, running from Tallaght or Saggart to Connolly or The Point.
The Luas Green Line is 16km’s long and running from Brides Glen to St. Stephen’s Green.
5.5 km of the Luas Red Line runs through busy city streets.



Trams operate on both lines from early morning to late at night, with an increase in frequency of tram movements at peak times:
In 2013 there were over 3.9 million km travelled by Luas.
Between 2005 and 2013 there were over 30.75 million km travelled by Luas.



Over almost 10 years from 2005 to date there have been 278 road vehicle / tram collisions
90% of road vehicle / tram collisions happened on the Luas Red Line.
10% of road vehicle / tram collisions happened on the Luas Green Line.
60% of road vehicle / tram collisions happened on the city centre section of the Luas Red Line between Heuston and Connolly stops.



On a weekday a tram on the Luas Red Line passes through over 800 Junctions controlled by Traffic Lights in a single day of operations.



In 2013:

o There were 38 road vehicle / tram collisions.

o 23 were at Junctions with Traffic Lights

o 15 were other road vehicle / tram collisions



To date in 2014:
There have been 13 vehicle / tram collisions
10 were at Junctions with Traffic Lights
3 were other road vehicle / tram collisions



The main junctions where road vehicle / tram collisions happened on the Luas Red Line are:

· Benburb Street / Queen Street

· Benburb Street / Blackhall Place

· Abbey Street / Jervis Street

· Bow Street Crossing

The main junctions where road vehicle / tram collisions happened on the Luas Green Line are:

St. Stephens Green / Harcourt Street / Cuffe Street
Dunville Avenue / Beechwood Road

The Luas lines are made up of Tram Lanes, Junctions and Shared Tramways:

Tram Lanes make up 91% of the two Luas Lines and are where the Tramway is separated from road traffic physically or with road markings.
Junctions are where roads and road traffic crosses Tramways
Shared Tramways are where road traffic share the same road space as a tram.
Junctions and Shared Tramways make up 9% of the Luas lines.



There are more Junctions and shared Tramway on the Luas Red Line that the Luas Green Line.
75% of the Luas Red Line is designated as Tram Lanes.
25% of the Luas Red Line is designated as Junctions and Shared Tramways.
95% of the Luas Green Line is designated as Tram Lanes.
5% of the Luas Green Line tramway is designated as Junctions and Shared Tramways.



There are 62 Junctions controlled by Traffic Lights on the Luas lines:
On the Luas Red Line there are 46 Junctions controlled by Traffic Lights.
On the Luas Red Line there are 17 Junctions controlled by Traffic Lights between Heuston and Connolly stops.
On the Luas Green Line there are 14 Junctions controlled by Traffic Lights.
On the Luas Green Line there are 3 Junctions controlled by Traffic Lights between Charlemont and St. Stephen’s Green stops.

Luas Motorist Safety pics http://garda.ie/Documents/User/Luas%20Pics.pdf

[grainne whale]

This problem of breaking Red Lights is not just confined to the Luas as a pedestrian in Dublin, I see it all the time, drivers reqularly break pedestrian lights, especially the one's at Heuston/ Victoria Quay.

[James Howard]

The issue is the complete lack of enforcement of traffic rules in the city. I've seen trams caught trying to cross Amiens street for two or three cycles of the lights due to idiots in the yellow box and the place is 50 feet from the main north city Garda station.

Nobody stops for orange lights and indeed you will will regularly see two or three people go through on red even if their exit from the junction isn't clear, yet I have never seen a guard pull somebody over for running a light. The rules are clear - you are actually supposed to stop on orange if it is safe to do so.

The Luas is particularly vulnerable because of its inability to manoeuvre. Some of the collisions in that video are simply absurd - in most of them the driver should lose their licence.

What might help would be a move to the UK system of having lights go orange and red before going green so that people are more prepared to move off. But there would be carnage for a month or so until people got used to it.

[ACustomer]

James Howard: I fully agree with you except for one thing. Giving a UK or German style orange+red just before the green would presumably mean people get moving about 1.5 seconds sooner. But then they are more likely to collide with the amber gamblers and red runners. As things stand Irish drivers appear to have found their own special equilibrium: the red light runners complement the dawdlers who take forever to react when red turns to green.

The average Irish driver in my experience is very slow off the mark - even though (s)he may have stopped beyond the white line.

[Jamie2k9]

Some of the collisions in that video are simply absurd - in most of them the driver should lose their licence.

I would replace some with All.

[James Howard]

Some of the junctions don't help. Given how narrow Jervis Street is and the blind approach, it could probably do with level crossing gates. In a normal country, this would not be necessary, but people obviously can't be trusted.

Ultimately, a blitz of enforcement would be a major help with the Garda overtime funded out of receipts. No cautions, no excuses, no taking back of points. People simply don't think.

I got a bollocking from a guard a few years back for using my phone while driving in a car-park and rightly so. Since then my phone has stayed in my pocket.

[Jack O'Neill]

The *LUAS operators should make an official report to the Gardai on traffic violations every time it is witnessed.

The tram camera's footage when used for evidence should be accepted by the courts as legal proof of road traffic offences for Garda prosecutions... At the moment I'm not sure of its acceptable?

As previous posters state...it is down to enforcement ( sadly woeful) along with education and engineering.

[Jamie2k9]

Some of the junctions don't help. Given how narrow Jervis Street is and the blind approach, it could probably do with level crossing gates. In a normal country, this would not be necessary, but people obviously can't be trusted.

They may not help but they are not the problem. If 99% of trams/cars operate over the junction normally it really shows that its the few car drivers who are the problem.

If a fine of €500 was issued for first offence, €1000 for second and a driving ban for 6 months for any more people wouldn't be long getting the message!

[Colm Moore]

Originally Posted by Jack O'Neill

The *LUAS operators should make an official report to the Gardai on traffic violations every time it is witnessed.

The courts are willing to accept video evidence, but they need a sworn affidavit to say that what is in the video is what happened. So the event might need to be witnessed by someone.

[James Howard]

I think we can mostly agree that the main way to resolve this is much better enforcement which would be supported by education through a public safety campaign. The issue is with a tiny minority who believe that they are too important for the rules. If even 0.1% of drivers run a light, each tram would have an accident every day. This attitude is not helped by the ability to get points erased although hopefully this has gone away. Perhaps a jeopardy should apply where running a light an endangering a public transport vehicle would carry double points.

However, there are a few specific engineering measures that would help enormously. The Jervis St. crossing where there was a fatality recently needs something done as it is completely blind for the tram driver. Capel street isn't much better. My comment about level crossing gates was tongue-in-cheek but a severe speed hump would probably help a lot. The only real reason to drive up Jervis street is to access the car-park so another possibility would be to put a barrier across the road to force you to enter the car-park which would reduce the traffic. Neither of these measures would cost much.

[Jack O'Neill]

How about installing those pop up bollards at notorious / troublesome blackspots , for example at Abbey St / Jervis St junction - might catch out a few running the red lights...


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YU7VN...e_gdata_player

[Colm Moore]

I've deleted a post for its abusive content. Please maintain some level of decorum.

[Colm Moore]

Originally Posted by Jack O'Neill

How about installing those pop up bollards at notorious / troublesome blackspots , for example at Abbey St / Jervis St junction - might catch out a few running the red lights...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YU7VN...e_gdata_player

I'm not sure - you would end up catching too many people - I think they are more suited to the likes of locations that are normally off limits to general traffic, as opposed to intermittently off limits.

[Jack O'Neill]

How about a red light traffic camera at these blackspots along with the determination to enforce road safety.

There used to be a saying "nothing will be done until somebody gets killed".

Well, someone has been killed and the response by all agencies involved
so far has been woeful!

[Jack O'Neill]

"According to a witness the car was driven onto the tracks, and proceeded some distance down the route along the ‘embedded section’ where the rail is flush with the road surface.

The car then became stuck when it hit the ‘heavy rail’ section of the tracks.
A tow-truck was dispatched to the scene, and the vehicle removed."

http://www.thejournal.ie/luas-car-sa...24510-Jun2014/