STOP. LOOK, LISTEN!

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 473, 1 October 1928, Page 8

STOP. LOOK , LISTEN!

THERE is a further tightening of the motoring regulations promised in the Railways Amendment Bill. In the past, the car driver has been instructed to slow down to 10 miles an hour approaching a crossing. lie will now be permitted to increase that speed to 15 miles an hour, but the onus of. ascertaining whether or not a train is approaching rests with him. Further, if there is a compulsory “Stop!” sign, the motorist must halt his car until he is positive that no railway engine is within striking distance. Presumably he must leave the wheel and walk on to the line, scanning the horizon in two directions. The Bill does not explain what short-sighted and deaf pedestrians are to do in similar case: possibly it will be enacted that they shall at all times carry audiphones and field-glasses. This irksome business may be justified as a temporary expedient—there have been so many desperate accidents and distressing fatalities at crossings in recent years—but surely it is the first duty of the Department to eliminate risk, starting with the most dangerous crossings and gradually evolving a system that will protect the road-users. While we are on the subject of dangerous crossings, it may be an opportune moment to call the attention of the railway authorities, once again, to the Argyll Street crossing, which, according to information received by The Sun, is equipped with a signal that is almost as erratic as one of Heath Robinson’s quaint mechanical devices. When will the department realise that, while the pedestrian and motorist must necessarily take precautions at crossings, there is an imperative duty devolving on officials to see that the public is not exposed to avoidable danger or misled by faulty signals?