Level crossing fatalities in the UK have remained remarkably consistent for the last 40 years despite a drastic decrease in overall road fatalities in the same period. (Level crossing deaths between 10 and sixteen per annum, annual road deaths down from around 7,000 to well under 3,000).
Analysis of the causes of these fatal incidents suggests that they are overwhelmingly caused by road vehicle drivers or pedestrians misusing the crossings. In fact I can find no instance of a fatality on a crossing on a public road where the cause was either faulty railway equipment or misuse on the part of those controlling the train for at least twenty-five years. There have, however, been one or two where the design or layout of the crossing was held to be at least partially to blame.
From eye witness accounts this latest incident seems to have been caused by the driver trying to zig-zag around the barriers and if that is the case then it will be yet another occasion where road user misuse has caused a fatality.
BTW you need to be very careful when looking at level crossing statistics in the UK. There are around 6,700 of them on the national rail network but the vast majority of them (around 5,200) are not on public roads. Nearly all of these are termed “passive” in that they are not controlled by the railway. They are either gateless or rely on the user to open gates and are often found serving footpaths or as “occupational“ crossings on farms. Those on public roads number about 1,500, down from about 1,800 in 1975 and almost all of these are controlled by the railway. Deaths on railway controlled crossings number about 170 in forty years and only a very small number of these were rail passengers or staff .