Decrease in level Crossing Fatalities

Manawatu Times, Volume LV, Issue 7044, 31 December 1932, Page 7

Decrease in level Crossing Fatalities

LOWEST TOTAL SINCE 1921. Only seven people were killed as a result of level crossing accidents in the Dominion in 1932, the smallest number of deaths in the past 11 years. In 1923 nine lives were lost, while in 1931 the total was 13. The number for this year is less than a quarter of the disastrous total of 34 in 1930, when 12 people were killed in two collisions. In the first seven months of 1932, the position was serious, as in 29 levelcrossing accidents five people had been killed and 24 injured. In the later part of the year, however, there was a welcome reduction in the number of accidents, only two poople meeting their deaths and six being injured between ■August and December. Of the seven people killed in 1932, three were drivers of motor-trucks, one the driver of a motor-car, two passengers in the motors, and the other a pedestrian.

Records for Ten Years.

Three level-crossing accidents occurred in the Auckland suburbs, two being at the notorious Church street closing, Te Papapa, and the other at. Mangere. The most serious accident during the year was that in which two women were killed as a result of a smash at a levelcrossing on the northernside of the Waihirere railway station, nine miles from Gisborne, on October 21. Mrs. Minnie Buncombe, the driver, was killed instantly, and a passenger, who was in the front seat, Mrs. Elsie Mary Earushaw, died from her injuries on Becembor 22. A daughter of Mrs. Earnshaw, who was also in the front seat of the wrecked car, was injured severely, while two other passengers suffered shock. Eight Accidents in July. The accident near Gisborne was the only one in which two lives were lost, but in sevoral other instances more than onei person was gravely injured in level-crossing splashes. A young man, Mr. Prank Gillespie, was killed at the Eenall street crossing, near Masterton, on April 10, and a girl and a youth were severely injured, when a motor-bus containing a number of young people was struck by the Wairarapa express. Last July there were oight accidents, resulting in one death and injury to 10 persons. In seven of the eight instances motor-vehicles and trains collided, while in the other case, a child who wandered on to the railway line at Huntly North was geverely hurt. Following the formidable total of July, there were no level-crossing collisions reported anywhere in the Bominion in August, and only two, both of a comparatively minor nature, in September. Buring the year a number of prosecutions were brought against drivers for failing to keep a vigilant look-out at leyel and £hi& coupled with

the formidable death-rolls of previous years, may possibly havo resulted in motorists generally exercising more care at crossings, with a consequent welcome reduction in the numbor of .accidents,

Following are the numbers of persons killed and injured in level-crossing accidents in New Zealand since 1932:— Killed. Injured. Totals. 1022 .. 14 31 45 1923 .. 9 32 41 1924 .. 13 98 111 1925 .. 11 80 91 1926 ... 14 40 54 1927. .. 13 31 44 1928 .. 14 47 61 1929 .. 14 36 50 1930 .. 34 52 86 1931 .. 13 21 34 1932 .. 7 30 37 156 498 654