Level Crossings.

Press, Volume LXII, Issue 18636, 10 March 1926, Page 8

Level Crossings.

The Prime Minister's "restatement [in "Monday's "Press".] of the position " in which the railways and road-users ". stand in relation to the use of level "crossings" was timely and reasonable. So far as the cities are concerned there is a good deal to be done yet before all the dangerous crossings will be provided with mechanical alarms, or will be guarded all day and all night by railway servants. In the country also there are many crossings which, though they cannot be provided with keepers, are bad crossings with regard to range of vision by day, and dangerous ones at night because of the angle of approach. But when the fullest allowance has been made for those facts, the essential fact still remains: "To look and listen is in all "ordinary cases an effective precau"tion," and if accidents still happen it is in nine cases out of ten because these effective precautions have not .been taken. Nor is there any reason ■why the dangers of the open roads should'not be guarded againßt by the methods that motorists are compelled to adopt when passing along congested city streets. On a journey of a hundred

miles the motor-road may cross the railway half a dozen times, and since every crossing without exception has a warning sign, collisions are in nearly all cases the result of speed, or of carelessness, or. of some mental .or physical defect which is a reason in itself why its possessor should not be in charge of a high-speed vehicle. The Department cannot of course say that, when it has erected "Stop!" notices, installed bells, and where the traffic is heavy appointed crossing-keepers, it has done everything that it can be expected to do. It is expected to do everything that can be done everywhere to reduce the risk of accident, regard being paid to cost, and to the use that could be made of the money in other directions. But the Prime Minister showed that it realises this, while the public makes a very feeble attempt to realise where the Department's responsibilities end and its own begin. The Government eannot be expected to give us eyes and ears, and especially intelligence. It cannot run after us as if we were all children, or take such precautions as will keep us safe however blindly and thoughtlessly we run into danger.—So far as motorists are concerned safe crossings are slow crossings, and since trains cannot slow down as often as they approach a road the users of the road must do so when danger is even remotely possible.