THE GLOBE. SATURDAY, MARCH 5, 1881. THE CARELESSNESS OF THE PUBLIC.

Globe, Volume XXIII, Issue 2192, 5 March 1881, Page 2

THE GLOBE. SATURDAY, MARCH 5, 1881. THE CARELESSNESS OF THE PUBLIC.

The inquest which has just been concluded in Otago on the body of Henry Mayo serves to show that tho public yet want considerable education in tho ijJiggction of taking care of themselves. Tho facts of tho case were that the Kensington Railway crossing was unprotected by a signalman, and cab-drivers and others had got into a habit of driving rashly across it and not paying sufficient attention to the warning whistle. As tho “ Evening Star ” remarks, the pitcher may go once too often to tho well, and Mr. Mayo was tho victim on whose head fell the effect of the habitual neglect of drivers generally, for the train dashed into the cab in which he was sitting and killed him. It appears that the whistle was heard distinctly by residents in the neighbourhood, and one man absolutely shouted to tho cab-driver with a view of warning him. It was certainly a dark and windy night, but, if the neighbours could hear the whistle, surely the man most interested in doing so might also have hoard it. The train was an ordinary train, and the driver should have made it his business to see that ho was well up in the times when the Kensington crossing was reached. There are buildings, indeed, which obstruct the view up the line, but the whistle is always sounded. The jury returned a rider that the Government were to blame for not providing a signalman. Along with other southern journals wo cannot agree with this. The cost attached to providing signalmen at nearly every crossing would be too great altogether, and the public should certainly be credited with a certain amount of intelligence. But one thing the Government might always do. It might well make it a rule that at crossings no buildings should, if possible, be allowed to be erected interfering with the safety of tho public by obstructing the view up and down the line. We are not acquainted with the place where the accident occurred, and very possibly the buildings were private buildings, over which the Railway Department had no control. But instances where railway buildings are allowed to stand in the light occurs to us. If our railway expenses are to be economised, Now Zealanders should bo credited with as much general intelligence as is shown in America, whore open crossings are as numerous as possible. On the other hand. Government should take all possible precautions, and not render tho situation more dangerous than it need he.