LEVEL CROSSINGS

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2779, 25 May 1916, Page 9

LEVEL CROSSINGS

A QUESTION OF HEAVY COST. The Minister; for Itailways made seme remarks on. the-subject of level crossings in. the House yesterday. The questionarose out of comments made iw the member for Rangitikei on the refusal of the Railway Department to make , a subway at a dangerous crossing, at which fatal accidents have occurred at Marton. The Minister said that he regretted as much as anyone tho deaths that had occurred,' but the_ question of how to deal with , level crossings ivas a very large one. It was not a' railway matter merely; it was a Dominion matter. If the' Railway Department had to erect bridges Deconstruct subways at all tho dangerous crossings in the Dominion the cost to the Dominion would bo enormous, and he did not think' that at this in the Dominion's history we should go in for this large expenditure. But the Department were doing something to safeguard the public. Where possible they were putting /up electric alawus, but just now. they had groat difficulty in getting the material, all electrical supplies heing- now very difficult to procure. Ho could assure the House that, tho Department was trying to do something to deal with theso crossings.. An additional .precaution adopted was the erection. of more conspicuous warning boards than those previously in use, pluc<xl Bome distance from the crossing in order that motorists and other road travellers new to tho locality would know of possible danger. He pointed out that the Department could not attempt to select the most dangerous crossings and deal with them. The most dangerous crossings should be those in tho towns, because: .they were used by'the greatest number of people, but in actual fact most of the accidents occurred in the-outlying, places.