Modeling the severity of highway-railway grade crossing accidents involving hazardous materials: Case study

The aim of this research is to model the severity of highway-railway grade crossing accidents involving hazardous material. In this paper, a real case study has been simulated. For this purpose, ALOHA (Area Locations of Hazardous Atmospheres) software is used for modeling and simulating consequences in the form of hazard radius and ArcGIS software is utilized for calculating the affected population for different accident scenarios. The results show that simulated population exposures were more than real reported number of injuries. The difference between the reported and calculated injured people from the simulation is emanated from the time of the accident. This accident occurred at 12:23 PM, and so most of the people were not in their home but in their workplaces. Also, it was revealed that accidents which cause greater tear diameters lead to more severe consequences. Another result is that such accidents in more humid regions cause less severe consequences compared to wet conditions.