New Britain herald., 1927-05-07
RAILROAD REJECTS PROTECTION PLEAS Crossing Guards at All Hours
 Would Cost S19,772 GATE SMASHERS RAPED

Barriers Broken 3l Times in Five Months-Common Council Com-
 mittee Approves Elinlination oi Grade Crossover at Allen Street. The movement of freigh: and pas senger trains over the unprotected ! grade crossings in this city from l p. m. to 5 a. m. is so slight that the payroll expenditure of s19,772 per year to provide 24-hour protection 1 would be entirely unwarranted, James H. Greer. chief trai,master of the N. Y, N. H. and H. R. R. Co.,, told the common council railroad committee last night, when the res olution presented at the council | meeting last month was up for dis cussion. Of the grade crossings in this city. five are protected day and night. Some of the others have part time gate protection and others have lights and signals, Mir. Greer said. Thirty-one railroad gates have been broken in this city during the past five months, he said, exclusive ! of three within the past week or so, which is not n good record but rath- CT is an indication that same of the motorists who drive over the cross ings are not reasonably careful. A I large number of gate smashing in- cidents have occurred in broad day light, Mir. Greer said, which raises the question as to what could be ex- Qected if there were gates in opera tion at all crossings day and night. Brakemen to Wave Lanterns To provide A hour gate protec- l ton at the Park street crossing would add $1,00o to the payroll cost. MT. Greer said. He agreed that it would be we'll for the railroad com pany to consider an arrangement l whereby brakemen on switchers would take up 8 position in the l center of the grade crossings. with lighted lanterns in their hands. dur ing the time the trains were moving over unprotected crossings at night. The railroad committee agreed to have Mir. Greer and Trainmaster w. H. Casey bring this matter to the attention of the recently appointed superintendent of the Waterbury di- vision and report is expected at a later date.
 Mr. Casey referred to the recent accident at the Park street crossing when Howard Hartman of Fairview street narrowly escaped death in a collision between his automobile and a switching train. According to the train crew. Hartford was wholly to blame for the accident, as the brakeman on top of the leading car shouted a warning when he saw the automobile round the corner from Bigelow street into Park street, yet the automobile continued on at a rate of speed said to have been 40 miles an hour. according to the brakeman. The switcher stopped within 13 feet. MT. Casey said. Had there been gates in operation. they would certainly have been smashed. Mir. Casey said. and had there been | a flagman on the crossing he might have been killed.
 Crossing Tenders Abused. MT. Casey emphasized that the railroad company is in favor of CO., operating with the city government and the public at large, but in re- turn the company feels it has the right to expect fair play. Time after time he has heard gate tcnders, in- cluding women, called vile names and grossly insulted by pedestrians and motorists, simply because they were doing their duty by keeping the gates lowered until it was safe to raise them.
 MT. Greer mentioned the incident at the Elm street crossing a few days ago. when Thomas Murtha oi 1 East Main street smashed the south gates and continued over the tracks and smashed the gates ,n the north side. Although the cost ot replacing gates runs from SIS up. the railroad company seldom collects from thos responsible for the damage, Mir Greer said.
 Councilman F. s. Caldwell said ht favors some sort of protection a grade crossings such as Park an( Whiting streets, where switcher
 move at night when the satemen ar' off duty, but he considered it unrea sonable to expect the railroad com
 pany to go to the expense of pro
 viding all night protection by mean
 of gates in view of the record o
 broken gates quoted by MT. Greer Councilman Caldwell said he had m
 idea that gates were broken so fire
 quently in this city, and he consid
 cred it serious situation.
 Allen Street Crossing Elimination
 The plan to eliminate the grad
 crossing on Allen street, which ha
 been under consideration for tn
 past three years by the traffic bu
 reau of the Chamber of Commerce
 was approved by the railroad com
 mittee and will be supported whe
 it comes before the council at tn
 meeting May IS.
 Chairman Walter L. Bell of til
 committee of the Chamber of Com
 merce having charge of the matte
 explained that the board of publi
 works and city engineer have look
 ed over the ground, and the road (Continued on Pare ID