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Oamaru Mail, Volume II, Issue 454, 12 October 1877, Page 2

As we watched an engine dragging a truck travelling along the line across

Thames-street yesterday afternoon, at the rate of about 15 miles an hour, or ordinary speed, it seemed to us that an alarming casualty might easily occur, for which nobody in particular would be adjudged responsible. We have no desire to act as alarmists; but it it is highly probable that we shall before long be afforded the pabulum for a sensational paragraph should some steps not be taken to reduce the helter-skelter speed at which, without rhyme or reason, an engine dragging trucks is allowed to travel at this dangerous point. If tiny were carrying her Majesty's mails, they could not travel faster, for, on some occasions, they go at the maximum speed allowable on safe portions of our railway lines. Four miles an hour would be fast enough to travel across Thames-street, and the time lost could always be mule up by reducing the stay at the stopping places. Only a few days ago, a team met with an accident at the Thames-street level crossing, a shoe of one of the horses having become jammed in the rails. A man was sent along the line to inform the engine-driver of an expected train of the mishap, or an appalling accident might have occurred. Should a little c'.ild or an elderly person be crossing the line as the engine is approaching the spot we have referred to, from not being aide to see in consequence of the character of the line contiguous to the crossing on either side, or from some defect in sight or hearing, they might be mowed down before the engine coidd be pulled up. Could not a ride be laid down that, when starting from or arriving at the Oamaru station, trains should go dead slow ? We throw out the hint to the railway authorities, feeling that they will, as usual, do their duty in the matter.