WARNINGS AT RAILWAY CROSSINGS

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21974, 24 December 1936, Page 8

WARNINGS AT RAILWAY CROSSINGS

10 THK EDITOB OF THE I'REitS. Sir, —The Railways Department comes in for a good deal of criticism in connexion with level crossing mishaps, so I should like to congratulate it on its simple little safety experiment at Sockburn crossing. There, the middle of the road, and not the outside edges, as formerly, has been used in warning traffic of its nearness to a railway line. It is quite a new idea to place warnings just where the motorist's attention is fixed, but it is the only sensible one, and I hope all crossings in New Zealand soon will be given their little strip of paving with the same distinctive marking, or something still more conspicuous. Of course there are some road users who, even if gates were used to close the crossing, would burst through to ram the engine, and for these nothing but subways or bridges will do. These, however, are too costly and slow to make much difference, and in the meantime it is due to travellers at all of our many unprotected crossings to give them some such simple warning of danger ahead. —Yours, etc. T.A.S. December 23, 1936.