RAILWAY GROSSING COLLISION.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 12407, 27 August 1918, Page 5

RAILWAY GROSSING COLLISION.

AT WALTHAM ROAD. ENGINE AND MOTOR-CAR, A collision occurred at half-past ten tins morning at the 'Waltham Road railway crossing, between a motor-car, winch was going towards Sydenham, and a shunting engine, llie. en&ne was coming out of the gasworks siding, on the eastern side of the Waltham yard. • As it came out of the points there the engine stopped, so that the shunter could lock the points. It then moved on again, and the electric bells and the crossing keeper were giving warning of its approach. / One motor-car which was approaching the crossing stopped, but another, driven by Mr Jackson, came on despite warn- ■ ings to stop, which, it is slated, were called out to tho driver, and it dashed into the front part of the engine. Fortunately, the engine, a light one of the F class, had not gathered ujj a great deal of speed, travelling probably at the rate of four miles an hour, while some of the spectators estimate tho speed of the motor-car at a high rate. ’ The motor-car struck the cowcatcher of tho engine, and it was slewed round and carried along for a short distance before the shunting engine was pulled up. Besides tho driver, there ■ were three other people in the motorcar, hut with the exception of a few cuts_ about the 'face which the driver received, they all luckily escaped serious injury. The motor-car was badly damaged, and had to be towed back to town. Tho crossing-keeper states that hg was out with the flag, and gave the customary warning. A coal carton who had crossed from the southern', ■ side before the warning bells denoted the closing of the crossing to vehicular ! traffic,- also, it is stated, qalled out a warning of the danger. Incidental to happenings at the f crossings, and not entering into the merits of the occurrence tins morning, the railway authorities say that something will have to be done concerning motorists who try to “ beat the train.’' The warning bells ring when’a train . is four hundred yards away from a ; crossing, hut? it is only a few seconds ' of time that is taken in accomplishing this distance, and there many “narrow squeaks.” At the Addington crossing the other day a motorist came along at a good speed, and"was not’ very far from the line, when a train rushed across. He was unable to completely pull up, but. a carnage struck the'.front part of his car dnd twisied it round parallel with the train. Another incident related by a prominent railway official concerns an occurrence on a southern section, where a motorist raced a train for a considerable distance to a crossing, and just) beat' it over. The official approached • tho ■ driver and discovered that he was trying out the capabilities of a uew’car, but that trial spin later landed hint in various expenses in Court.. ,-.pv r ■ “What-is itP” said another traffic official when a, “Star” reporter asked' ' for particulars of this morning’s collision, the occurrence of'which he was then unaware of. “Is it anything serious, or just one of these everyday affairs?” His story was the-same as related by railway men generally’ who were spoken to—the risks .that'will! b© taken, hut which do not always end without serious consequences. ’