ROAD SIGNS AT LEVEL CROSSINGS

Press, Volume LXX, Issue 21133, 7 April 1934, Page 9

ROAD SIGNS AT LEVEL CROSSINGS

TO TUB tIHTOS OP t'iJß rRF.SS. Sir,--Your correspondent, A. B. Edwardcs, opens up a very important matter and his suggestions are well worthy of acceptance. I am a most careful driver, but on a long, dusty road, without a vehicle in signt, I find myself unlikely to sec the present signs indicating the danger of a railway line. I believe that 90 per cent, of the accidents are due to carelessness not of the driver, but of the railway authorities, and their yearly total of 17 deaths should be partly attributed to their indifference. If the railways were owned by a private company the Government would quickly pass a law to compel the company to make their crossings safer. It seems legalised murder for the community to run an express engine across a freouented road without adequate warning. In America the railway authorities did not wake up to the public danger until 20 ton motor-lorries began to smash up their own railway trains; then they began to safeguard the level crossings to save their own rolling stock. It should not be necessary to insist on overhead bridges or gates at everv level crossing as in England. T [ would suggest that in view of the fact that electric power is available practically alongside every railway line, warning signals be installed at every dangerous crossing and gradually extended to every crossing, the Highways Board to share the cost with the Railways Department. For this purpose I consider the following signal adequate: A tube four feet long and two feet wide, placed four feet above the road level at each crossing, with a winking light, red and white alternately, running day and night in the middle of the tube. This would be sufficient warning to anyone. It would be necessary to ensure success that all placards be removed within a mile of any railway crossing and no similar light be installed for advertising purposes anywhere in New Zealand. If any motorist loses his life in spite of such a warning I he deserves to bo dead: at present he at least deserves a chance to remain alive. —Yours, etc.. J. MONTGOMERY. | April 6. 103-1.