COLLISION WITH TRAIN.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19964, 4 December 1926, Page 7

COLLISION WITH TRAIN.

LEVEL CROSSING ACCIDENT, WATCHFULNESS IMPERATIVE. (Special to Dailsi Times.) AUCKLAND, December 3. The driver of a motor bus which collided with a goods train at Church street crossing between Southdown and Penrose, on the evening of October 12, was prosecuted at the Police Court on charges of having attempted to pass a level crossing when the line was not clear, and of having failed to stop. E. W. Oiliff, the defendant, was represented by Mr J. J. Sullivan, and Mr Gould appeared on behalf of the Railways Department. Two trains passed on the south side of the crossing. According to the evidence given by the witnesses for the prosecution the south-bound train had just passed the crossing with the engine whistle blowing when the north-bound goods train reached the roadway. The motor bus, which contained a number of passengers, including members of the Devonport Orphans’ Club, moved forward as the south-bound passenger train left the crossing, and the front of the bus struck the engirre of the up train. The impact slewed the bus round and a wheel was ripped off. “Lucky there were not a lot more orphans, ’’ observed Mr Hunt drily. The defence put forward by Mr Sullivan was that the passenger train was brightly illuminated, whereas the goods train, with its unlighted wagons, was less likely to bo noticed Defendant had not heard the whistle given by the goods train because tha sound mingled with the whistle of the passenger train. “This man is the driver of a public conveyance,” said the Magistrate, “and in the interests of public safety is required to tajie the greatest care and keep the sharpest look-out. Because two or three passengers can say that they saw nothing, it does not show that there was nothing to see. It is a driver’s business to keep a look-out. The passengers may be looking anywhere. I think this man should have §een the train. He is a man who knows there are two lines at tins crossing, and ho must have seen the engine had ho looked down the line. The law required him to stop, and he did not stop.” A fine of £2 10s was imposed, and defendant was ordered to pav witnesses’ expenses (£2 10s), costs (7s), and solicitor's fee (£1 Is).