TOLL OF CROSSINGS

Manawatu Standard, Volume L, Issue 115, 11 April 1930, Page 7

TOLL OF CROSSINGS

HEAVY LOSS OF LIFE. INCREASE IN FATALITIES.-' The level crossing tragedy that occurred south of Hikurangi early on Saturday evening has been attended with greater loss of life than any other accident of the kind recorded in the recent history of the New Zealand railways. R’he toll of the crossing has long been a grave menace that has tended to increase with the expanding density of motor traffic. During the past 21 years 170 persons have lost their lives in level crossing accidents in the Dominion. J>ast year such accidents accounted for 14 deaths and the same number of deaths from this cause was recorded in 1928. Tho present year promises to be tho worst on record, for already 12 lives have been lost at crossings, six fatalities having occurred in various parts of the Dominion before Saturday s tragedy. The most serious of the earlier accidents this year occurred early in January in Southland, when a special train carrying tho Minister of Rodways became involved in-a collision with a motor-lorry at Hokutua, with the result that a man and his littlo daughter lost their lives. LAST YEAR’S ACCIDENTS. Last year 46 collisions, between trains and motor-cars, trucks or vans, occurred at level crossings and in addition to the fatalities 36 people were injured. In April the driver of a motor-car lost his life on the Church Street crossing,. Southdown, near Auckland. In January one man was killed and two were injured iri a crash between a motor-car and a train on a crosisng near Stratford, and |U March a man and woman were killed in a car on the line near Invercargill. Two men in a lorry lost their lives near Shannon in April, and in September a collision between a lorry and a train near Invercargill caused the death of one man and the injury of another. Tho notorious Argyle Street crossings, Morningside, was the scene of two <ollisions, between trains and motor-lor-ries, but in each case the driver of the lorry escaped unscathed. The Hikurangi accident recalls a crossing smash which occurred at Auckland under somewhat similar circumstances on October 1, 1897. On that occasion three persons were killed and three injured. In that case also a train and a bus were involved. The 10.20 p.m. train to Onehunga was leaving the Auckland station when it struck a horse-drawn bus, laden with passengers who had been attending a performance by a company known as “The Flying Jordans.” The driver of the bus, Mr William Ness, and two youthful passengers, Thompson Leys and Charles Akast, received injuries from which they died shortly alterwards, and three others were injured. FATALITIES IN TEN YEARS. The following table shows the number of persons killed and injured in level-crossing accidents in New Zealand during the last 10 years:—

In earlier years such accidents averaged only two or three a year, owing to the smaller use of motor vehicles. There are 2651 level-crossings in New Zealand and less than 100 of them are equipped with signal devices. Of these 54 have warning bells, 33 have wig-wag signals and half a dozen have automatic flashing lights. It is roughly estimated that it would cost up to £10,000,000 to eliminate all crossings, and the installation of flashing signals would cost approximately £670,000, with an annual bill of about £70,000 for maintenance. There are, of course, hundreds of crossings which present such good visibility that anything more than a warning notice would never be justified.

Killed. Injured. 1920 ' .... 19 1921 .... 4 19 1922 .... 14 31 1923 .... 9 32 1924 13 98 1925 .... 80 1926 .... 40 1927 .... 13 31 . 1928 .... 47 1929 .... 14 36