Source: Ia Ara Aotearoa Transporting New Zealand
National road freight association Transporting New Zealand says that road freight companies have a key role to play in avoiding accidents at level crossings, as TrackSAFE Foundation’s Rail Safety Week (11-17 August) gets underway, launched at Parliament today.
Between 2010 and 2020, 52 fatal and serious injury incidents occurred at level crossings, with research suggesting 54% of these crashes occurred at crossings whose only control measures were ‘STOP’ signs.
A June 2025 report by KiwiRail and WSP also showed that many New Zealand drivers aren’t looking both ways before going through crossings. From observations of over 3600 drivers, 47 per cent failed to stop at crossings with Stop or Give Way signs. Stopping compliance was almost twice as high for truck and trailer vehicles compared with cars.
Transporting New Zealand Chief Executive Dom Kalasih says that KiwiRail report paints a stark picture around careless driving at rail crossings.
“While the focus of this year’s Rail Safety Week is ensuring people are walking and crossing at official level crossings, drivers also need to be playing their part.”
“All vehicles should be complying with all traffic signage, and also exercising common sense and good judgement. I’m reassured to see that truck and trailer compliance at level crossings is higher than light vehicles, as you would expect from professional truck drivers. However, it’s clear that all motorists need to be lifting their game.”
Transporting New Zealand is meeting with TrackSAFE shortly to discuss how signing improvements and better level crossing design could reduce accident risk for heavy and light vehicles.
“Regulators need to be ensuring clear level crossing signage and good level crossing design across the entire country.” says Kalasih.
Transporting New Zealand is also encouraging operators who have safety concerns about particular level crossings to contact info@transporting.nz so the feedback can be referred onto KiwiRail and the relevant authorities.
