THREE KILLED.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 150, 26 June 1937, Page 18

THREE KILLED.

CROSSING SMASH.

MINERS ENRAGED. PUBUC AGITATION. (From Our Own Correspondent.) SYDNEY, June 18. A tragedy took place last Friday at South Cessnock, in the northern coalfields. A car containing seven miners on their way to work collided with a coal bank at a level crossing near Bellbird.

The spot is a dangerous one, as trees obscure the railway line from the road, and the trains are upon unwary motorists or pedestrians before they Van take alarm. In this instance there seems to have been no possibility of escape, for the car, and its occupants. Two men were killed on the spot, a third died later, and four more were injured seriously. The tragedy caused a sensation in the district, and Aberdare Central, the colliery to which the men were going, closed down for the day as soon as the news spread.

Desirable Effect. There was a great public demonstration of grief at the funerals, and the tragedy seems likely to produce a most desirable effect by stirring up an agitation against the maintenance of level crossings. The crossing where this accident happened is passed by hundreds of miners every day on foot, in cars, or on bicycles, and scores of children play about it when, as frequently happens, the coal trains are held up there. A public meeting was called by the Mayor of Cessnock to register a protest, and some very strong language has been usfd by the miners and their union officials about the matter. The fact that the line is a private one, being owned by the Heddon Bellbiid Company, is naturally resented by the people on the coalfield, who are a'sking angrily why any private concern should be permitted to run trains right across main arteries of traffic, to the danger of everybody who uses the thoroughfare.

Several .Fatalities. One of the executive officers of the Relton Miners' Lodge told a representative of the "Daily Telegraph" that within the last few years there had been several accidents at level crossings in the district—a man killed at Pastar— two men killed at Aberdare, a child killed at Cessnock, and only three weeks ago there was an accident, fortunately without loss of life, at the very spot where three men were killed on Friday. The danger is recognised and admitted by all, but neither Government nor private companies are prepared to make the financial sacrifice needed to safeguard the community. "Money is being spent lavishly on the mechanisation of the mines," said a

union secretary last week, and money must be spent for the protection of human life." Various suggestions have been made to obviate the danger always lurking at such spots—overhead bridges, automatic gates, watchmen—to give warning of the approach of trains. Mr. fiondy Hoare, who is president of the Northern Miners' Federation, is helping to lead the agitation in favour of abolishing level crossings throughout the coalfields, and the miners are determined that the authorities shall be forced to take steps to get rid of these death traps without further delay.