Crossing Rails In Front of Train

Manawatu Times, Volume 63, Issue 62, 15 March 1938, Page 6

Crossing Rails In Front of Train

MOTORIST LIABLE TO £SO FINE The fact that a motorist who crosseu a railway line in front of a train less than half a mile away, was liable to a fine of £39, was adversely commenteu upon ut a meeting of the executive ol tue Automobile Association (Manuvvatu; last evening. Mr. T. M. A. Rodgers, a solicif.oi member of the executive, said it had taken him some tinio to discover that the prosecutions brought by tho police for these offeuces were based on a clause iu the Railways Act and not on any .Transport Act. Furthermore, the offence was included amongst what were classed as “grave offences” in respect of the railway. Under the same heading came dynamiting of bridges, placing obstructions in tunnels, and serious actions likely to cause loss of life. He had been in Cou.t recently when two such prosecutions had been brought against motorists and he had discovered that other members of the legal fraternity, as well as two highways traffic inspectors, were just as ignorant as he was about the matter. Mr. Rodgers pointed out that at some crossings it was a physical impossibility to see half a mile along the railway line. In Palmerston North the Magistrate had been treating these offences as ordinary traffic breaches and imposing fines of £2. The practice in Palmerston North had developed into a prosecution for crossing the rails when the warning bells were ringing, but that apparently was only a courtesy procedure.