CADMAN’S CROSSING.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXX, Issue 5433, 10 June 1929, Page 3

CADMAN’S CROSSING.

DEPUTATION TO MINISTER. CAR OVER THE SAME EVENING. A deputation on behalf of the Ohinemuri County Council and headed by Mr C. Mason, chairman, waited on the Hon. W. B. Taverner, Minister of Railways, on Friday afternoon and brought to his attention the subject of Finlay’s Crossing, Cadman Road, Tirohia. Mr Mason told the Minister that the crossing in question was an absolute death-trap caused through the narrowness of the road, obscured vision, and deep drains on either side. Eight cars had come to grief since Christmas, although with miraculous good fortune no one had- been killed. Mr Mason showed the Minister correspondence which had passed between the council and the Railway Department,. showing that the department had given a most unsatisfactory answer to the council’s request that the department should form the crossing properly to its boundary on either side. From there the council would do the necessary improvements on its part. On account of the great danger to life the crossing represented, and the urgent necessity to have it immediately rectified, Mr Mason asked that the Minister go into the.subject and .endeavour to get the department to do its share if he thought it was under the obligation to do so. The Minister said he was interested, 'and he would .be glad to accept MiMason’s invitation to visit the spot. i . ' Official Visit. However, as the Minister was occupied with a private deputation, and as the hour was getting late, Mr Taverner; deputised Mr W; R. Davidson, assistant chief engineer of the Railways Department, to view the crossing. In company with the Mayor, Mr W. Marshall, and Messrs C.. Mason and R. W. Evans (county clerk), Messrs Davidson, F. S. Dyson, Public Works Department district engineer, Auckland, and A. P. Grant, Public Works Department assistant engineer, Paeroa, 1 inspected the crossing. Messrs Mason and Marshall carefully pointed out its dangers, and how, if certain improvements were made by the Railway Department in its property, these, and those to be undertaken by the Ohinemuri County Council, would eliminate the danger. Mute but significant evidence was pointed out in the remains of a car which had fallen into one of .the drains and, catching -fire had been -reduced to a tangled heap of twisted metal. Mr Davidson and the Public Works Department’s engineers deemed the filling in of the drains impracticable, the former remarking at the same time that he did not think the Railway Department was responsible, the road being a county one and the crossing only the department’s. , Mr Marshall pointed out that that was just where the crux of the whole matter lay. Were it not for the railway the road would be level. The track, being higher than the road, was responsible‘for the rise that obscured vision from both approaches. The railway track was at right angles to the road, and great care had to be exercised, even in daytime,- in negotiating the crossing. . Finally Mr Davidson promised that a survey by the Public Works Department would be undertaken ly to see the best means of making the crossing safe. While the Railway Department would not be committed to the whole cost, they would contribute to the work. In the meantime he would see that sleepers were supplied to the council so that a temporary white' fence could be erected. This would act as a deterrent warning. In connection with the reconstruction of the road, which it is, understood will in part be the filling in of one side to a nearby power pole, Mr Dyson said the Public Works Department would contribute £2 for £l. ANOTHER CAR OVER. Some half an hour later the Hon. W. B. Taverner and party, with whom was the Honi'' A. J. Stallworthy, passed over the crossing, en route to Frankton Junction. Three and.a-half hours after that, at ten o’clock precisely, another automobile came to grief, making three in- 10 days. The one in this case was a van belonging to Cor ban’s Wines Company and driven by Mr A. A. Corban, who was accompanied by his brother. Approaching the crossing slowly from the direction of Te Aroha, Mr Corban, who did not know the road, proceeded dead slowly when taking the rise, on account of that and the dense rain. When over the track, and under the impression that he was ‘safely on the road, as he would have been on any proper one, he suddenly felt one side of the van going over. With great presence of mind he threw the engine out of gear and jambed on the brakes. Had he not done so it would have meant death or 'dire injury several feet below. As it was, the car hung, as if by a miracle, see-saw wise, two wheels on one side bn the road, the others overhanging the drain. Fifteen hundredweight, of wine had shifted to the drain side of the van, which made matters all the more precarious and dangerous. While his brother held the car up by digging his heels into what ground there was and putting his back to it, Mr Corban hurriedly .secured some posts and with them propped up the van to prevent it from capsizing. There it remained until morning, when a breakdown car arrived and pulled it out.