Re: [NSW] Wagga victim's mother's letter to SMH

[mauried@tpg.com.au (Maurie Daly)]

On Tue, 1 May 2001 19:20:53 +1000, "Chris Downs"
<cvdowns@ozemail.com.au> wrote:

>This letter published in today's Sydney Morning Herald is worth a read (copied
>in full below).  It was written by the mother of one of the 5 dead boy's from
>the Gerogery XPT/car collision.  Very sad but it also clearly shows emotion
>overruling reason on safety (hard to blame the mother though, grief for her
>only son).  Absolutely no responsibility allocated to the car driver however
>and I'm sure it'll hit a sympathetic community nerve.
>
>Chris

Stuff snipped.
Yes its understandable the emotion that is called into play when
accidents like these happen.
There is though , at least in NSW a complete lack of standardization
about which crossings get boom gates, flashing lights , stop signs
etc.
Indeed I am unaware of any sets of rules or standards which define
what levels of protection a crossing should get .

A classic example of total stupidity are the "Nubba Gates"
For those who dont know where Nubba is , its because it isnt .
Nubba used to be a tiny railway station half way between Wallandbeen
and Demondrille .and there is a very narrow country road that crosses
the line at Nubba which effectively goes nowhere.
It simply degenerates into a dirt track , but it has boom barriers .
The only example I know of in Australia where a dirt road crossing a
railway line has boom barriers .

Jusr down the road , where the Olympic Highway crosses the main line
to Parkes , we have hand operated gates , which ar AFAIK the last set
of hand operated gates on a main line in NSW, (maybe in all
Australia.)

In order to solve the emotive arguments like the above , a set of
standards are needed which define what types of protection are
required  for rail / road crossings , otherwise haphazard decisions
will continue to be made.

MD