“SAFETY FIRSTS !”

New Zealand Times, Volume LII, Issue 12075, 28 February 1925, Page 14

“SAFETY FIRSTS !”

A MAGISTRATE’S ADVICE. In dealing with a level crossing accident case, at the Wanganui Court, Mr Barton, S.M., referred to a quotation from a judgment of the late Mr Jlustice ' Salmond in a similar case, which read: “He who disregards as needless any precaution which the Legislature has authoritatively declared to be reasonable an'd necessary. will do so at his own peril, and if he meets with an accident in conseouence, he must bear it for himself. It nmv Be true that the statutory obligation imposed on drivers of motors, to stop, to approach them at not more than 10. miles, is habitually disregarded, but it remains * legaldobligation none the less. He who breaks it does so. at his own risk. If. as,is usually the case, no evil ensues, well and good ; but if by ill-fortune an accidont does happen, the sufferer must attribute it to his oivn conduct and not to any negligence of the railway servants.”