RAILWAY CROSSINGS.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 53, 4 March 1926, Page 6

RAILWAY CROSSINGS.

Two recent railway crossing accidents have produced an outcry about the condition of level crossings that is louder and more insistent than anything j we remember. The reply of the Railways Department is that the other party is to blame, and that it (the Department) is doing its best to make crossings safer. There is, of course, much carelessness on the part of drivrs of vehicles, and we wish the Department I all success in the "safety-first" campaign that it is launching. The driver ' who approaches a crossing has a. .(■- ---sponsibility to sec that it is safe. Unfortunately for itself, the Railways Department claims too much. It says that ''the onus to mako Mire that. :i crossing is safe rests with the road user." But what of the onus of making it safe? YVliat of the crossings where tile view is obscured'; What of crossings beside stations, through which express trains dash ?" 'The record of accidents shows that collisions occur at crossings where there is an uninterrupted view in both directions as well as at those where the outlook i.s more or obscured.'' But what exactly is meant by an "uninterrupted view?"' Js it the view from the actual crossing, or the view from twenty, or fifty, or a hundred yards away? There are crossings where a man might be caught aftor taking every precaution. He might stop his car and get out and look along the line both ways; yet by the time he had started his car again a train might be on him. The Department presumes too much on its "right of the road," and undervalues the rights of those who us° the highways. It must bo more accommodating, ft points to what it is doing to make crossings safer. Unfortunately the public, remembering that the Department has never hastened to give it safety, is not impressed. The public suspe"ts that but for outside agitation even less would have been done, and it feel 3 certain that if the railways were privately owned there would be much less danger at crossings. The Department's own figures am a<rjiin?t it. The railways improvement programme of 102-1 allocated £200,000 for "elimination of level crossings," but that money was to spread over eight years, and in the first five years only £40.000 was to be spent. Is this remarkable energy? Fortunately for the public, another party has come on tho scene. FTv Main Highways Board is collecting data about crossings, and mean? to suggest a joint procramme for itself, the Department, and local bodies. Since the Highways Board represents users of roads, it is the proper party to stir the Railway? Department into greater activity. It should bo the "big brother" of the' motorist, to whom he can turn when the Department will not give him satisfaction.