ANOTHER LEVEL CROSSING DEATH

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 243, 4 January 1928, Page 8

ANOTHER LEVEL CROSSING DEATH

YET another level crossing fatality is reported. Yesterday the relief Wanganui express crashed into a motor-van at the Rongotea crossing, between Longburn and Palmerston North, the driver of the van being killed instantly. The Rongotea is another of those crossings, it may be presumed, which is regarded by the Railways Department as being “safe” if drivers of vehicles use that “reasonable care” which officialdom so pompously emphasises. There are many such crossings. Most of them have claimed their victim or victims. There is a marked difference in regard to what is safe and what is not safe in the respective views of railway officials and drivers of road vehicles The Rongotea crossing, for instance, is described by drivers as a very dangerous one, as, coming from Rongotea, the view of the line toward Wellington is obscured by a number of trees. Most of the road traffic between Palmerston North and Rongotea passes this way, and the risk of a smash is ever possible. The Rongotea fatality makes the fourth within three weeks from the level crossing menace How much longer is the public to wait for a definite statement as to what the Railways Department intends to do to remove or lessen the danger? * The attitude of the department up to now has been apathetic beyond description—-and in the circumstances is deserving of the most indignant criticism.