LEVEL CROSSING ACCIDENT

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2527, 30 July 1915, Page 3

LEVEL CROSSING ACCIDENT

CORONER'S VERDICT. (By TelegraDh.-Press Association; Auckland, July 29. When giving his verdict at the inquest into the King Street level-crossing accident, the Coroner, Mr. Cutten, S.M., said the evidence only confirmed what he liad already thought, that the King Street crossing was most dangerous. It was dangerous for two reasons —firstly on account of the amount of vehicular traffic wliicli passed over it, and, secondly, because buildings came close up to the line. On.the eastern side the crossing had the usual "stop" notices, but one's experience was that the averago person did not always obey these notices strictly. He did not say for one moment that tho Railway Department was legally responsible in cases where the notices wero shown, and" thero was 110 negligence on tho part of the driver of tlie train, but ono could not help thinking that at a busy crossing where buildings obstructed the view of trains approaching, thero must be a largo number of people, making use of such a crossing, who took risks. It was a case of the human element again, and no matter how carefully tho "stop" notices were displayed there were people who would forget, or who would deliberately take a chance, thinking that evcrythine; was all right.

There had been a number of inquests in connection with crossing fatalities during tho past few years, while in the Police Coiivt hardly a month passed without one or more motorists or drivers being charged with' speeding over a certain rate without an eye 011 the "stop" notices. The evidence in such cases was very ,often to tho effect that the driver _ of the vehicle was exceedingly lucky in being able to get past tho tram. He understood the Railway Department had the matter of these unprotected crossings in hand, and it was to be sincerely hoped that 110 time would be lost in doing something to protect the King Street and Kingsland crossings. He said this because his experience as a Magistrate, as well as that of a Coroner, was that the people must be protected against themselves. The warning notices were habitually disregarded by numbers of people, and it seemed to him that the proper thing was for the Department to allow for tho fallability of human nature and place sometmng more than mere notices _at a dangerous crossing such as King Street, which was doubly dangerous 011 account of the two factors he had mentioned.