Time for a change

Today, our country again witnessed another accident in an unmanned level-crossing in UP. More than 30 lives were lost. It is not an isolated problem that has been going on only in Indian subcontinent. But even in developed countries such accidents are unavoidable. In England in 2002-03 more than 2000  deaths were reported by such collisions.

          In India there are 38341 level crossings present in which 16549 level crossing are manned and 21792 level crossings are unmanned.Its time we should automatise the level crossings. There are many successful amateur projects that has been done that shows automatic level crossing system is possible.In USA they are trying a system called "TRAX ALERT" which is in its experimental mode. In this system a series of signal modules are paved in the line of track and this modules signals if train is approaching.
         An automatic level crossing monitoring system using WSN(wireless sensor network) had been proposed by Alka Dubey and Ashish Verma. Their proposed system can control the  operation of level crossings gates automatically. They say it is very cost effective and also easy to deploy. Also technology like "Feed Back Looping " could be utilised in this matter. For instance if a person is speeding even near a level crossing, a sign saying "your speed is 50km/hr and is dangerous" could make him aware of the situation. Even if he is not aware, a big sign board displaying your speed, could help others in the vehicle or anyone near by evaluate the situation and take precautionary measures.