DANGEROUS CROSSING

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 520, 24 November 1928, Page 6

DANGEROUS CROSSING

BENCH REFUSES TO CONVICT DEPARTMENT’S NOTICES CONDEMNED (From Our Own Correspondent) HUNTLY, To-day. On September 26 Thomas Gavin was driving a motor-car over the Rayner’jt Road crossing at Huntly, and the motor was wrecked by an Auckland-bound goods train, Gavin being sent to hospital. | H© was charged at th© Huntly Police Court yesterday with failing to keep a vigilant look-out for approaching trains at a level-crossing. Senior-Constable Ingram stated the crossing was a dangerous.one,-and the approaches not altogether free from building obstructions. Jn a previous similar case the magistrate had dismissed the charge. Mr. K. S. Caldwell, for th© defendant, pointed out that at th© Onslow Street crossing, where not half of the number of trains passed, the department had a permanent crossingkeeper, and Rayner’s Road, undoubtedly a far more dangerous crossing, was left to look after itself. Tho department recognised this, and sinoe the accident to Gavin, had erected another warning-board. This notice abutted two feet on to the footpath, adding still further to the present obstructions, Th© Bench condemned th© ambiguous notices and would not record n conviction, but ordered Gavin, to pay the costs.