MONDAY'S CONFERENCE AND THE CROSSING

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LIV, 8 October 1921, Page 4

MONDAY'S CONFERENCE AND THE CROSSING

THE whole district is keenly interested and vitallv concerned in the conference of local bodies to be held on Monday to consider the new letter from the Railway Department regarding the AnPcsbrook Railway Crossing Dealh Trap. The local bodies, realising the grave responsibility resting on tooir shoulders, have not been slow to face the. position, for they have recognised their duty to make this deadly crossing safe before another tciriblo fatality occurs The sight of blood ou tno rails would .stir .the gieatest procrastinator to action. But lives lost can never be restored. Here arc three or four extracts from letters sent to The MaiNiy well-known, careful drivers with years of experience of the Grossing. Mr E. C. Russell, Proprietor of the Stoke-Tahuna-Nclson Motor ’Bus Service, 22nd February, 1921, wrote: — 1 have had to apply the brakes so quickly there (Aniicsbrook Railvay way Crossing Death '1 raid as to Ihiov. the. passengers forward off the, seats and not one of the passengers heard or saw the train until it was almost on the road. , . Mr \V. Cole, after 2.V years’ spomTin driving a passenger and motor loiry which crossed the death trap daily, wrote, 22nd February, 1021 I, only :1 few weeks ago, had a very narrow escape. I thank God for having the presence of mind to run into the hedge instead of into the train, and I heard very little warning before it dashed over the road. Ou the 11th March, 1921, Mr G. E. C. Saxton, of Stoke, detailed a miraculous escape ho had from a terrible accident. Mr Saxton happened to bo in the vicinity of the death trap when two accidents occurred, one of them resulting in the death of two people. Notwithstanding this first-hand evidence of the dangers, and his experience of the crossing, Mr Saxton bad about as close a call as it is possible to imagine. On the date mentioned,

he wrote: — 'Crossing out of (own, in my cor. one vMiiuviltjy, I wus uenriy by an engine and van going* to Stoke. It wus 1 o'clock —n lime when 1 mid no reason to expect a Irani—-and I was approaching the crossing at lo guiles an hour. Wlien I was hy Mr Ingham’s gate, I saw the engine coming down the hill, within about 50 yards of the crossing. 1 declutched my engine and used all brakes, pulling up almost at- once. The engine dashed past just in front of the car. 1’ was so close to the line that when I got out to crank up the car for starting again, my right foot was on the line. I have driven a car for, seven or eight years, and have cross-' ed the line many times. I am not a fast driver, and" always exercise care and. attention. 1 never heard any whistle from the approaching engine, or sound. The same sort of thing is going on. In a letter to. The Mail only the other day, Mr E. C. Bussell, proprietor of the Nclsou-Stoke-Taluuni Motor ’Bus Service, wrote;— tVhen returning from Stoke on Saturday at about 10 to 2 p.m., a fearful accident was very narrowly avoided. My ’bus, at the time, was carrying at "least 20 passengers,_ of,. whom only oue-third heard the train whistle. I, "thinking 1 heard it, slopped the ’bus within five yards of the line, and at the same instant the train shot by. The fact flint so few of the passengers heard the ■whistle or saw the train until almost 100 late emphasises the fact that sooner or later there will bo another shocking accident at this crossing. On thn law of probabilities, another terrible fatality must sooner or later occur at the crossing—if something is nut done. It may be a tataiity, not as in past instances involving the loss of one or two lives, hut one, .if a. ’bus or large- car lumpens* to 'bo struck midships, resulting in the death of perh:ipi twenty people!