The study, commissioned by the Australian Rail Track Corporation (ARTC), monitored level crossings at Scone, Culcairn and Red Bend near Forbes, with the trials ranging from four weeks to three months to assess driver behaviour.

Each of the three monitored crossing sites are controlled by "stop" signs, without electronic boom gates.

The eight-week trial at Scone which began in mid-April this year found half of the 5673 vehicles using the level crossing failed to stop, including 86 large trucks.

The Scone trial follows an incident in October 2021 where a truck collided with a coal train at a level crossing near Turanville, causing serious injuries to the driver.

The study found non-compliance was even higher at Culcairn, with more than half (1015) of the 1923 motorists using the crossing throughout December last year failing to stop. Many were repeat offenders, with 130 vehicles responsible for 604 non-compliant crossings.

While in Red Bend, near Forbes, almost one in three (7403) of the more than 25,000 vehicles using the monitored crossing between December 2021 and March ignored the stop signs and continued across the crossing.

Once again the study found a high rate of repeat offenders - 965 vehicles - were responsible for 66 per cent of non-compliant crossings. A large number of trucks also failed to stop, including 345 road trains.

Drivers did not receive warnings or fines as a result of the study but Alexander Jannink, the managing director of Acusensus which conducted the camera trial, said the level of non-compliance was "worrying" and showed more needed to be done to educate drivers of the potential dangers at level crossings.

"The trial sites include a mix of passenger and freight trains that travel at up to 120km per hour through these crossings," Mr Jannink said.

"There is very little a train can do to avoid a collision at those speeds, so it is up to drivers to observe the traffic signals, which are there for both their safety, and the safety of rail users too," Mr Jannink said.

NSW Police launched a campaign in the state's Central West region earlier this week aimed at increasing public safety and awareness around rail level crossings in regional NSW.

Inspector Kelly Wixx, the Traffic and Highway Patrol Peel Sector Manager, said despite the potentially fatal consequences, people are still ignoring warnings at level crossings.

"Motorists are urged not to be complacent as trains can come from any direction, at any time, and there can be multiple trains on tracks that can travel at speed of up to 160km/h," she said.

"Some trains can take more than a kilometre to come to a complete stop, so even if they see you, they can't stop.

"Disobeying level crossing warning lights and signs can lead to crashes between vehicles and trains where the consequences can be deadly".

According to the Transport for NSW Level Crossing Strategy Council's 2021 report, 926 of the 1360 public road level crossings in NSW are controlled by "give-way" or "stop" signs.

The report recorded seven collisions between a road vehicle and a train in 2020-21, resulting in two fatalities from a collision between a B-double and a freight train at a regional level crossing with passive protection, and two serious injuries arising from a collision between a car and passenger train at a regional level crossing with passive protection.