Thursday, 10 May 2018 - 1:37pm |
Southern

Patience and alertness needed at train crossings

1 min read

Please attribute to Senior Sergeant Jared Kirk

Southern District Police are concerned about the number of reported incidents of vehicles failing to obey rail crossing lights and in some cases barrier arms.

We believe it is only a matter of time before our staff will have to attend a serious incident.

What motorists need to realise that it’s very difficult to estimate a train’s speed and they have absolutely no ability to stop quickly should they need to do so.

It’s a stressful place for train drivers to be. When they approach a crossing they see motorists going through a thought process about whether they should rush across the tracks or comply with the flashing lights.

Another point motorists might not realise is that due to a partnership with KiwiRail, incidents are recorded by train drivers and forwarded to Police for follow up. This includes the capturing of vehicle registrations.

Southern Police of late have observed a steady increase in the number of reported incidents where drivers are literally risking life and death for the sake of waiting for a minute or less. It’s just unacceptable.

As part of the ‘See something do something’ national campaign Police will be monitoring driving behaviour around level crossings and looking into any reported incidents and dealing with them accordingly.

ENDS

Issued by the Police Media Centre