TOLL OF THE CROSSING

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21248, 30 July 1932, Page 11

TOLL OF THE CROSSING

THIS YEAR'S ACCIDENTS SERIOUS POSITION SHOWN FIVE DEATHS IN SEVEN MONTHS Level-crossing accidents continue to lew their toll on human life in New Zealand. To date this year there have been 29 accidents at level-crossings, the majority of them being tho result of collisions between motor-cars and trains. From these accidents fivo people have been killed and 24 injured. Although only seven months of the year havo passed (ho position, as compared with previous years, shows little improvement. For tho complete 12 months last year (here were 34 accidents on crossings, in which 13 people were killed and 21 injured. Already this year tliero have been nearly as many accidents and the casualty list of deaths and injuries is only fivo short of last year's total. During the past 10 years tho most serious list of crossing accidents occurred in 1930, when thero were 65 accidents, resulting in 34 deaths and 52 cases of in jury. Following are tho totals for those killed and injured in level-crossing accidents in Now Zealand of recent years:— Killed Injured 1922 .. ..H 31 192;? 9 32 1921 .. Ht 93 1925 .« . . .. v . H SO J 92G . H 10 1927 k . 13 31 1928 H 17 1929 U 3l> 193 31 52 J 931 13 21 1932 (seven months) 5 24 Totals 151 492 One of the most, serious level-crossing accidents this year occurred at Tuakau on February 1, w hen a cream lorry was wrecked by the Auckland-Rotorua express at the north end of Tuakau railway station. As a result Mr, Charles T. P. Feavon. of Tuakau. suffered head .injuries from which*he died in the Auckland Hospital several days later. At a subsequent inquest several witnesses said tho warning bells at tho crossing did not signal the approach of the train. There was another serious accident at the Renall Street crossing, near Masterton, on April 10, when a young man, Mr. Frank Gillespie, was killed, and a girl and a youth wero severely injured. The accident occurred when a motor-bus, taking a number of young people to a dance, was struck by the Wairarapa express. In this case a charge of negligence was preferred against the driver of the lorry, but he was acquitted. Level-crossing accidents have been comparatively rare in the vicinity of Auckland this year. There have been four cases, one of which, the accident at Tuakau, has resulted in death.