KILLED ON CROSSING

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 110, 5 November 1935, Page 10

KILLED ON CROSSING

MOTOR-CYCLIST'S END

COLLISION WITH A TRAIN

(By Telegraph—Press Association.) CHRISTCHURCH, This Day.

A fatal level crossing accident occurred at Glandovey Road, Fendalton, early this morning, when a motorcyclist, Grant Bethell Duncan, single man, 25 years of age, crashed into a north-bound workers' train. Duncan suffered severe head injuries, and died while being taken to the Christchurch Public Hospital by the St. John Ambulance.

The warning bell and signal were working correctly at the time, but apparently Duncan did not realise that the train was in the vicinity until he was about 50 feet from the line. On approaching the crossing the train speed was slackened to between twenty-five and thirty miles an hour. The train was almost on the crossing, however, before the motor-cyclist was noticed, and there was no chance to pull the train up. The brakes were applied and the train came to a standstill in twenty-five feet.

Houses and trees obscure the view of the line north and south except from quite close to the crossing. when proceeding west, but the warning bell is a loud one, and in addition a red sign swings backwards and forwards over the middle of the crossing.