The Waipa Post. Printed on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. THURSDAY, JULY 22, 1926. LEVEL CROSSINGS.

Waipa Post, Volume 32, Issue 1785, 22 July 1926, Page 4

The Waipa Post. Printed on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. THURSDAY, JULY 22, 1926. LEVEL CROSSINGS.

THE recommendation of the engineer at the meeting of the Te Awamutu Borough Council on 'Monday evening last in regard to extending the bitumen surfacing in Alexandra Street right across the railway line to the borough boundary on Pirongia Road attracts attention once again to the subject of level crossing dangers. There is no mention in the engineer’s report of what action it is proposed! to take to dispense with the level crossing. The engineer wisely refrained. But the whole subject is one that must soon be tackled, both by the Borouygh Council and the Railway Department, while the Main Highways Board also has an interest in the subject, for Pirongia Road is now a classified main highway. The Department, not unnaturally, looks at the problem from a different angle from that of the other two most interested parties. “ The Department cannot stop the limited express to let a man pass in his buggy.” This 'statement, credited to the secretary of the Railway Board of Management, succinctly sums up the departmental attitude. The foregoing sentence may be, and perhaps in some quarters will, be interpreted as a defiance to the public, a throwing down of the gauntlet. The law on the subject of level crossings is engagingly simple in its disposal'of the Department's liability, for it places the responsibility on 'the users of the road. Section 10 of tbe Railways Amend-

ment Act, 1913, is thoroughly definite ( on the point:

Every person in charge of a motor or driving a motor on or along any road or street shall, when approaching a railway cross ing, slacken speed when within one hundred yards of the crossing to a rate not exceeding ten m'iles an hour, and shall stop before coming in contact with the railway line. He 'shall also keep a vigilant look-out for approaching trains, and shall not attempt to pass over such crossing unless the line is clear, and shall not pass over such crossing at a greater speed than ten miles an hour.

And any who, not being motorists, may imagine that they come outside the law, are fully provided for in section 25 of the same Act, which makes it an offence, punishable with a fine of £25, to: Drive or attempt to drive any ■ vehicle or animal across a level croslsing or elsewhere on a railway line when an engine or any carriage or waggon on the railway is approaching, and is within half a mile from such crossing. There ils the law; foolish perhaps; tiresome, no doubt, as far as motorists are concerned; but nevertheless the law; and, so far as the Department is aware, there is no instance on record of an accident having occurred where the clause first quoted, has been complied with. If that be so, the Department possibly is fortunate. Hut the fact remains that, if every motorist who gets in the way of a train had stopped to satisfy himself that it was not approaching, most probably he would have escaped troujble. The president of the North Island Motorists’ Union came yery close to the mark when he said, that many accidents ai ' e due to day-dreaming, and the day-dreaming, driver is the one who affects a lofty disregard of the law. We are not .seeking to make out a cafee for level crossings, nor to belittle the danger which they hold for th f e roadusing public; but it may be a trifle unfair to kick the Railway Department because heedless people will persist in blundering on to crossings under the very wheels of advancing engines. Thanks to these clauses in the statutes, the Department is clear of all legal responsibility, and, in numbers of cases its moral liability is doubtful. Were a man to hedge his property about with notices to beware of the bull” he wou|ld not be held liable for any injury to a trespasser. Yet the only means of guarding absolutely against hurt to the public would be either to shoot the bull or to erect a barbed-wire fence which none could pass through. On the Railway Department’s figures there were ninety-one croslsing accidents last year, sixty-eight with motor vehicles, fourteen with horse-drawn vehicles, six with pedestrians, 'two with bicycles, and one with a horseman. Besides indicating the overwhelming preponderance of motor participants, these .statistics show that it is possible still for those who employ less pretentious means of locomotion to come to grief at crossings. So, although some motorists may be carel'elss and most of them may be in a hurry, it is apparent that there is a danger in the crossings apart from these contributory causes. In this case the country cannot afford to “ shoot the hull ” by closing the entire railway system; hut the time has come to think about putting up a fence. “ Railway crossing ” signs and “Stop! look out for the engine” notices do not warn people; ringing bells or “ wig-wag ” signals should. A case is reported this week, however, of a “ wig-wag ” signal failing to act, with the result that a terrible .accident was only very narrowly averted. But the 'elimination of the more dangerous level crossings-by the provision of overhead bridges or subways would overcome the need for'warning; and that is the direction in which perfect safety lies. Unfortunately, is is also the way of great expense, and the Railway Department cannot face the cost except in a piecemeal fashion. The move by tbe Main Highways Board to have a definite policy laid' down in regard to methods of meeting the difficulty, and the proposal for joint consideration by road and railway authorities is, to say the least of it, not at all premature, and should have the support of the country as a whole. It will cost /Something to make all crossings safe, •bult, at the rate of accidents quite recently, scores of lives would be saved every year if only they were made safe. It is probably too much to hope for the total abolition of level crossings on main roads, at least for several years, but it Would help matters to have the installation of warning signal system's pushed on simultaneously with the work of bridging 'the more deadly of these roadway man-traps.