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Safety at Level Crossings
Standardising Signs

The Department has adopted a scheme to standardise all signs erected at road crossings over railway lines throughout New Zealand. It is expected that they will be erected by June 1, when the Railways Amendment Act, 1928, comes into force.

The signs are to be made more prominent and several new ones, particularly one for crossings which are considered dangerous, will make their appearance along the main highways.

Two of the signs will be erected by local bodies and the others by the Railway Department.

The ordinary crossing sign will be erected on roads crossing railways about 300 to 350 yards away from the crossing. This is just the ordinary sign with “Railway Crossing” in 10-inch lettering.

The second will be erected for crossings over railways on side roads where the crossing is less than 300 yards from the main road. It consists of the same design as that mentioned above, but will have a smaller notice below on which will be the words “On Side Road.”

The third sign will be a hexagon-shaped board, coloured a bright yellow, on which will be the words “Compulsory Stop.” It will be erected at all level-crossings where road traffic is required to stop.

The fourth, the ordinary stop sign, is to be altered. The word “Stop” will be painted out and the word “Railway” will be substituted.

The yellow compulsory stop sign will be crected from 20 to 50 feet away from crossings where automatic alarms are not installed, but where it is considered desirable to stop road traffic to make sure that everything is clear before such traffic crosses the rails.

Section 9 of the Railways Amendment Act, 1928, reads as follows:—

(1) Every person driving a motor-vehicle on any road or street shall, when approaching a railway crossing, reduce speed when within 100 yards of the crossing to a rate not exceeding 15 m.p.h. and shall not increase speed until after he has crossed the railway. It shall be his duty to keep a vigilant look-out for approaching trains and he shall not attempt to cross until the line is clear.

(2) If at any such crossing there is a “compulsory” stop sign erected in accordance with the regulations under the Motor Vehicles Act, 1924, or by the railway authorities, it shall be the duty of the person driving any motor vehicle to stop at such signs for such time as may be necessary to make adequate observations to ascertain whether or not the line is clear.

(3) Every person who fails to comply with the requirements of this section of the Act, or who crosses, or attempts to cross, any railway line while the same is not clear, commits an offence and is liable to a fine of £10.

These regulations will come into force on June 1 and by that time the Department and the local bodies concerned will have the new and revised signs in position.

The signs will have general application throughout the whole Dominion.