Connecticut western news., 1916-11-02
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 1916.
GRADE CROSSINGS.

The past week has brought to our notice very forcibly the convincing evidence that grade crossings are dan- gerous. They always have been dan- geFous, but with the ever-increasing travel occasioued by the thousands of automobiles which are being added daily to the multitudes already on the roads, the dangers are increasing at an alarming rate. Even a flagman at a crossing does not make it safe, as was proven at Ashley Falls last Saturday, when an auto crashed into a trolley car. While it may be argued that the auto driver was to blame, or the flag. man was to blame, it matters not if one or both were to blame, the fact re- mains that so long as grade crossings are tolerated accidents will happen and people will be killed. Flagmen, signals or gates, are but makeshifts; l.; the only way to make grade crossing safe is to abolish it.
 At the meeting of the Business Mems Association, Secretary E. A. Creevey has been one of the principal advocates of more adequate protection at our rail. road crossings, especially nights. and it is truly coincidence that he should be the first victim to suffer from an accident at exactly the spot which he has been endeavoring to have pro- tected. But such is a fact. and. now that the accident really has occurred it would seem hat the dangers at these crossings have at last been demon strated in a way sufficiently practical and forceful to elicit attention. When a locomotive or train, carrying no lights or signals of warning, runs onto 8 grade crossing at night, in the very center of village and at it's most travelled thoroughfare so that auto driv- CTS cannot know of it's coming, 1t is very evident that something should be done to prevent repetition of what happened last Thursday night at the Main street crossing in Canaan.
 Tho railroad company always ap. pears to be willing and anxious to do what is right in matters of this kind, and to meet the public more than half way, and no doubt they will do so in this case. The fact that sufficient warning was not given at the crossing in this particular instance is no fault of the company, but simply a case oi negligence on the part of the em ployees, who receive sufficient remun eration to make neglect of duty inex cusable. Innocent parties-the public and the railroad company-have tt suffer for this neglect of duty, anC some scheme, system or device should be inaugurated to guard against sucl happenings, the best of which is tn, This, however, is not pleasant thin, for nearby property owners to contem plate, as an overhead highway appear to be the only feasible way of doing tn trick, and it does not require grea stretch of imagination to foresee wha this would do with both Main an, Railroad streets in Canaan. Tn r,rorcrtv demepe would he consider able, and neither a solid earth az proach nor open bridge work incline reach the required height, extendin far back in either direction, is jus what he'people want in front of thei doors. However, we are "confronte with condition and not theory, and eventually something must | done.
 From the standpoint of the railroad the elimination of this particular eros, ing means the expenditure of lot ( money, and from the viewpoint of tt property owners and residents in tt immediate vicinity, it means 8 "blac eya" to the village.
 What has been said of this crossiu is also true of other grade crossings thls section. They must be eliminate sooner or later-there's S no getting aws from that. Then why not "take tl