Hauer and Persaud demonstrated the importance of the accident history of rail-highway grade crossings for estimates of collision risks. Such estimates are important for an optimal allocation of resources available for prevention. They also explained the bias in results of "before and after" studies of effects of warning devices.

Injury limitation of collisions is a supplementary approach. The relation between types of impact and nature of injury in grade crossing collisions has been studied. The severity of the collisions might be diminished by a change of locomotive front design.