Brussels, 29/06/2009 (Agence Europe) - Three seconds is the reaction time for a driver on a level crossing when he or she hears a train approaching. Three seconds is not very long. At a briefing at the European Commission on the Pan-European Level Crossing Awareness Raising Day, the future member of the new European Parliament transport committee, Ines Alaya Sender (PES, Spain) pledged to reduce the number of accidents on level crossings. She says road users, particularly foreigner workers, should be made more aware of the dangers of level crossings. International Railway Union (UIC) statistics show that the number of deaths in Europe due to collisions on level crossings averages 600 a year (out of an average 2,000 accidents). This is not many in terms of road transport (collisions between cars and trains only make up 2% of the total fatal road accidents). The authorities therefore prefer to focus on other areas like speeding and drink driving. The rail industry has to take its responsibilities seriously, argued the head of the European Railway Agency's safety unit, Anders Lundström, at the briefing. He explained that level crossings are a danger zone on the railways and that between 5% and 10% of rail user deaths occur due to accidents on level crossings. According to the director of the European Crossing Forum (ELCF), Jürgen Menge, 95% of these deaths are directly due to road driver behaviour, ignoring signs, for example. The country with the highest number of deaths on road crossings in the EU in 2008 was Hungary (118). There were no deaths in Luxembourg, only 3 in Sweden and 2 in Denmark. Germany has the highest number of level crossings in Europe (20,385) and accounted for around 10% of deaths in 2008. (A.By./transl.fl)