LEVEL CROSSING.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 213, 9 September 1935, Page 8

LEVEL CROSSING.

PORTAGE ROAD SITE. WARNING DEVICE PROMISED. i ______ RESPONSE TO AGITATION, After an agitation extending over 20 years for the installation of a warning device at the Portage Road railway , level crossing, Xew Lynn, one of the most dangerous in the Auckland district, an automatic warning signal of a ! modern type is to be set up. The Mayor of New Lynn, Mr. George Lawson, was advised to-day by Mr. G. IT. Mackley, general manager of the New Zealand Railways, that the Borough Council's representations arc to be acted upon. Following a fatal accident at the crossing some months ago, ii thousand citizens of New Lynn signed a petition for a warning installation. The petition I Mas supported by the New Lynn and I Titirangi Women's Institutes. Mr. Mackley visited New Lynn .at the invitation of the Mayor, with whom he inspected the crossing, in company with members of the council. He promised to give a decision within three months, after reviewing the position. This morning a letter received by Mr. .Lawson stated that the Railways Board had decided to install a suitable automatic device as soon as circumstances would permit. This decision will occasion considerable satisfaction, not only to people of New Lynn, but to thousands of motorists and others who traverse the crossing from day to day. Recent Fatal Accidents. The accident which brought the dangerous nature of the Portage Road crossing prominently under notice was that in which Mr. Leonard Stott, a grocer, of Golf Road, New Lynn, was killed and his two children seriously injured, when the motor car in which they were riding collided with an inward-bound suburban train at 0.30 p.m. on February 21. All three were thrown out when the car somersaulted after the collision and Mr. Stott was killed instantly. Last August a boy cyclist met his death at the crossing. The total number of level crossings in New Zealand now fitted with automatic devices is 123. In addition, a number have manually-controlled bells. Two level crossings which many drivers consider are associated with death, grave injuries or narrow escape are Mays Road, Te I'apapa, and Valley Road, Henderson. During the year ended March last there were four fatal crossing accidents near Auckland city and four collisions that did not result in loss of life. On the same day, in two collisions, one at Mays Road and the second at Church Street, one person was killed and another injured. There was n fatality at Valley Road, and injury resulted from a' collision at Southdown. During the year vehicles collided with trajns at Argyle Street, Morningside, and Waircre Avenue, Mount Albert, but the drivers escaped unhurt.