A LEVEL CROSSING.

Taranaki Daily News, 31 July 1915, Page 8

A LEVEL CROSSING.

COKOXER'S PLAIN SPEAKING. Auckland, July 29. When giving his verdict ut the inquest into the King Street level crossing accident, the coroner, Mr. Cutten, S.M., said the evidence only confirmed what he had already thought, namely, that the King Street crossing was most dangerous. It was dangerous for two reasons; firstly, on account of the amount of vehicular traffic which passed over it, and, secondly, because the buildings which came close to the line on the eastern side of the erosing had the usual "Stop" notices, but one's experiences was that the average person did not always obey these notices strictly. He did not say for ono moment that the Hallway Department was legally responsible in cases where notices were shown, and -there was no negligence on the part of the driver of the train, but one could not help thinking that at a busy crossing, where buildings obstructed the view of trains approaching, mere must be a large number of people making use of such a crossing who took risks. It was a case of the human element again. No matter how carefully the "Stop'' notices were displayed, there were people who would forget, or who would deliberately take a chance, thinking that everything was all right.. There had been a number of inquests in connection with crossing fatalities during past few years, while in the Police Court hardly a month passed without one or more motorists or drivers being charged with speeding over a certain rate without an eye on the "Stop" notices. The evidence in such cases was very often to the effect that the driver of a vehicle was exceedingly lucky in being able to get past the train. lie understood the Railway Department had the matter of these unprotected crossings in hand, and it was to be sincerely hoped that no time would be lost in doing something to protect the King Street and Kingsland crossings. He said i this because his experience as a mag'* trate, as well as that of coroner, was that the people must be protected ] against themselves. The warning notices were habitually disregarded by numbers of people, and it seemed to him that the proper thing was for the depart-1 merit to allow for the fallibility of human nature, and place something more ithan mere notices at a dangerous crossing such as King Street, which was doubly dangerous on account of the two factors he had mentioned.