Foreword. Safety First is a system which proceeds on the assumption that prevention is better than cure. It takes its rise in a sound belief in the value of human life. Its main business is to search out the causes of sickness and accident and to devise preventive measures.

We recently analysed official records of accidents throughout the Service and the results obtained were sufficiently conclusive to justify us in treating the subject as one of first rate importance. Accidents not only involve suffering and loss on those immediately concerned, but they reduce the efficiency of the Service, and are a source of great economic waste. Some, of course, belong to that inexorable order which no human sagacity can anticipate or prevent. But the great majority of accidents which occur to Railwaymen in the execution of their duty are preventable. It is this fact we would emphasise most strongly.

There are weaknesses, particularly on the human side, which habits of caution and circumspection would almost entirely eradicate. Accidents may be the product of carelessness, lack of foresight, folly, and even of sheer recklessness. No amount of lamentation will restore an eye or a finger. Let every Railwayman therefore be ever vigilant in the conservation of life and limb, and throw his energy into this “Safety First” movement-wholeheartedly. Our objective is the education of every employee, not in habits of self-preservation merely, but also to a realisation of his responsibility towards those with whom he works. We confidently ask the cooperation

Wig-Wag At Petone Crossing.
Road Clear
Danger—Road Obstructed

of all members in furthering the adoption of “Safety First” methods and habits designed to reduce the number of accidents in the Service.

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American Motorists' Notions Re Level Road Crossings.

There are three grades of eggs. There is but one grade of crossing—and that's dangerous!

The glass in your windshield is the same stuff as they put in hospital windows. Look through one or the other.

Don't try to scare the locomotive with your horn.

The minute you save may be your last.

It's all right to dispute the right of road with the enginedriver, but not while he's on his train.

Thoughtlessness causes accidents. Try thinking.

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Level Crossings.

The Railway Department, at heavy cost, has installed warning appliances in the vicinity of public level road crossings for the protection of both the road-users and the train-travelling public. But, despite the law, the warning devices, and the deadly peril which carelessness creates, the sober statement of the General Secretary for the Einginedrivers, Firemen, and Cleaners' Association, in a recent communication to the press, is that at the Petone level crossing, where warning signals of the latest type have been installed, motorists are “more reckless than ever.”